Circles UK

In this lesson, students review the concepts of whole number exponents in anticipation of extended study of exponent rules and scientific notation in future lessons. In the first part of the lesson, exponents are introduced with an animation depicting repeated doubling—not unlike cell mitosis. The work here supports students in understanding `2^{5}` as the result of doubling five times or as five factors of two. This visual is stripped away later in the lesson as students think about large-numbered stages of doubling and reason about how they can use exponential notation to compare the relative size of numbers. Based on this activity by Desmos Circles • Activity Builder by Desmos, adapted for the UK curriculum. French translation courtesy of Jocelyn Dagenais: https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5d5b0f68b5fa7d5f08902e0f

By Vicky Wheelhouse