Scientific Notation Puzzle

I recently discovered Tarsia Puzzles and they are my new favorite go-to activity for practicing math problems. In this lesson, I used them to practice Scientific Notation. This puzzle has problems with negative and positive exponents - several have the same coefficient so students really have to think about the function of the exponent. The students had to correctly work out 30 problems to piece the puzzle together and they had way more fun practicing this way than a worksheet. I overheard some great discussions about the rules and misconceptions (which they can self-identify when they don't find the answer they are looking for).

Here is the link to my Scientific Notation puzzle in TpT.

Laws of Exponents Puzzle

I recently discovered Tarsia Puzzles and they are my new favorite go-to activity for practicing math problems. In this lesson, I used them to practicing power to a power, product rule, and quotient rule for exponents. The students had to correctly work out 30 problems to piece the puzzle together and they had way more fun practicing this way than a worksheet. I overheard some great discussions about the rules and misconceptions (which they can self-identify when they don't find the answer they are looking for).

Here is the link to my TpT store, where for $3, you can buy the Laws of Exponents puzzle.

Exponent Dominoes

I thought my introduction to exponents lesson would be a breeze, but students had a difficult time when parentheses and negative signs were involved. I saw lots of students with the same misconceptions, so I knew I needed an activity to help them differentiate between the two. I created Exponent Dominoes. The students loved this hands on activity. It led to great discussions like which of these match:

Before this activity, they could not see a difference between these expressions. They had to really understand what the parentheses mean to be able to correctly match the pairs. And they knew when they made a mistake because the end did not connect back to the beginning. Then they had to discuss where their mistake could be. Here is another one that really got to thinking. First a lot of them tried this:

One group tried this, but then decided since the two expressions were not equal that would not work. Nice try though - I may have to add a problem like that for next time.

 Ah yes, that's a match.

 My favorite part about this activity was it took only one piece of paper per group (I actually printed them on cardstock), and it led to very active engagement and great discussions. They all know the difference now between expressions inside parentheses and outside. Now on to Laws of Exponents ...
Here is the link to my Exponent Dominoes. Give it a try!