All in with IM – Grade 8 Unit 7 Exponent and Scientific Notation Practice

Here’s a quick resource for exponent and scientific notation practice that aligns nicely with Illustrative Math / Open Up Resources Grade 8 Unit 7.

I first saw the “One Incorrect” activity model on Greta B’s blog Count It All Joy. I believe her original inspiration is from the work of Don Stewart  here.

Since Unit 7 includes so much “Which of the following are the same as . . . ?”, this practice structure seemed like a perfect fit. Use whichever pages fit your needs. Note the open middle style appear on this unit assessment. Chose the level of openness you are comfortable with.

Some details on construction: Each sheet has a picture over the top of the actual editable equations/text. So if you would like to edit problems, or make a different page for each group and have students rotate and find the “one incorrect” on their classmate’s creations, you can easily duplicate a slide and edit it.

Tips for those feeling pressed for time as they approach unit 7:

Lesson 1-3 can be condensed. Use the pre-assessment to decide how much. 2 days? 1 day?

Lesson 4 and 5 are worth slowing down on a bit. The tables are amazing in lesson 5. Take time to fully understand all that first table does for you and reference back to it through the lesson.

Lesson 6 and 7 extend exponent rules to other bases. If you have an anchor poster for your work from lessons 1-5, update it here. See the note below from the Activity Synthesis for lesson 6, activity 2:

I would do this by using post-its to replace the 10’s with 2’s, then 5’s, and eventually rewriting with x’s. These are the lessons where lots of exponent rule practice is built in.

Lesson 8 and Lesson 9: Great lessons, but if time is an issue and you are able to revise a test question, this is a spot where the time desperate can cut. Note that test question number 6 part c is covered in lesson 8.

If you are minimizing lesson 9, be sure to include a moment for big and small number vocabulary, maybe including an anchor chart for reference.

Lesson 10: Spend the time here. There are some amazing resources to explore with this lesson.

For Activity 10.2, check out the applet in the on-line materials for placing numbers on the number line. This is something to consider having students interact with in pairs.

Also in Lesson 10, Activity 3 has a must-use applet to visualize the expanding number line.

Lesson 11 goes through the same thinking, only with very small numbers. Desmos has a activity, The Solar System, Test Tubes, and Scientific Notation, that combines lesson 10 and 11, as well as some fun Scientific Notation practice.

In the Activity attached at the top, there are also 4 pages practicing the second half of the unit.

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