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exponents Expressions and Equations

A tough exponents question

  Oh man, this is going to be tough for kids. Good mistake. What makes this so hard? Or am I over-estimating its difficulty? Thanks Matt!  

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exponents Exponents Expressions and Equations

Another chapter in this site’s continuing chronicle of the ways exponents are hard for kids

  Good luck, @mpershan pic.twitter.com/ocarfvO6Fg — Matt Vaudrey (@MrVaudrey) September 20, 2013 @MrVaudrey 64 and 8 are strongly associated. When taxed, working memory craps out. So you've got 8 and 3 mushing around. That's my best. — Michael Pershan (@mpershan) September 22, 2013 Thoughts?

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Exponents Feedback Linear, Quadratic, and Exponential Models* logarithms

Constants and Exponents

  Open thread. Go wild! (Thanks to Pam for the submission.)

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exponents Expressions & Equations

Negative powers, with numbers and exponents

  I just dug this up. It’s what I handed back students after a “pre-quiz” (i.e. a quiz at the end of the unit, but before their quiz). I had forgotten that during that first year I handed back these things with class performance percentages on them. Anyway, the way those percentages break down is […]

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exponents The Number System

Why kids mess up exponents

I’m trying very hard to get people as excited by exponent mistakes as I am. I just think that they’re really cool and interesting. I gave kids this survey today in class to 9th graders who have never seen negative or rational exponents before, just to see what they’d do. The results did not disappoint. […]

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Expressions & Equations Feedback Middle School

Multiplication and Exponents

  Dip into the archive and check out our other exponent mistakes. What do you notice? Thanks to Julie for the submission!

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Arithmetic with Polynomials and Rational Expressions Exponents exponents

Negative Exponents with Tons of Variables

  I think the temptation I have is to call this a “careless” mistake and urge more practice. Let’s probe deeper. 1. What does this kid know and understand about exponents? 2. What’s the fastest way to help? 3. What makes this mistake so tempting? Thanks to Sadie Estrella for the awesome addition to our ever-mounting […]

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Exponents Numbers & Operations in Base 10

Exponents Mistake from Middle School

What makes this mistake so common? Thanks to Cathy Campbell for the student work!

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Arithmetic with Polynomials and Rational Expressions exponents

Simplifying exponents

  How would you help this kid out? Thanks to Chris Shore for the submission!

Categories
exponents Linear, Quadratic, and Exponential Models* Seeing Structure in Expressions

Negative and Fractional Exponents

  I want to share a theory on this mistake: The student had an association between negative exponents and reciprocals and “half-powers” and square roots. As the student was parsing the problem he “fulfilled his obligation” to use that association on the number. I guess what I’m positing is that the mind works by making […]