TickTockMaths

Tag: indices

  • Writing in standard form

    Get the PowerPoint here

    Please tell me if you can’t download from the above link. Hopefully you can also see a preview of the PowerPoint above. (Clicking the ‘book’ icon should open a menu that will allow you to download a copy for yourself)

    Been meaning to update this one for a while. The old ones were not good.

    Firstly, I’ve gone for FRESH NEW LOOK

    I am trying to do some more etymology stuff this year, so I’ve got a dedicated bit talking about it. Mainly, I’ve got rid of the big picture and the learning objective (which was usually just the title anyway). I’ve also tried to minimise my use of dark bits as you’ll see.

    These animate in. I think it’s really interesting to be specific. Talk about what is and isn’t standard form. In my early teaching career I definitely rushed through stuff and it makes me cringe a bit.

    Obviously before you do this, you need to tell them what standard form is!

    Then we do an example problem pair and then this

    I love moving between different forms and having to think backwards. Blocking out the tables is always good. I also like getting students to write out the full expanded form.

    I do the same for negative indices and then I added this


    I think it’s important that we don’t lose the point of standard form, which is easy comparison of numbers and scale. All that stuff like Scale of the Universe (https://htwins.net/scale2/) which makes this topic cool!

    Please hit me up on Twitter if you have feedback or comments!

  • Fractional Indices

    Download the PowerPoint here.

    This is my first post of the term.

    I guess I’ve started a week late. The reason is quite simple, I think I’ve got a bit of resource writer’s block!

    This PowerPoint is fine.

    It’s got an example problem pair.

    A discussion (which I’ve found a useful bit in my lessons. I guess some people might call them a hinge question) and some questions.

    But I’m not sure how I feel about the questions at all. They’re a bit… bleugh. I guess they increase in difficulty level, and some of the questions link back, but it all seems a little bit boring. There doesn’t seem to be anything here to get your teeth into.

    In fact, I nearly didn’t share this resource at all. It lacks … seasoning. I’ve tried to reflect on this and improve it a little, but I’m drawing a bit of a blank. Eeek. I couldn’t even find any JMO type questions.

    I did add a little codebreaker, but I feel that I’m exhausting that format.

    If you’ve got any thoughts, give me a shout on Twitter (@ticktockmaths) or below.

  • Multiplying indices

    Get the PowerPoint here

    Again, a lot of stuff is stolen from Jo Morgan’s great work. I mean, I’m never going to make something as beautiful as this.

    I wrote some questions. I think they’re quite nice.

    And I put some discussion slides in again

  • Index Notation

    Download the PowerPoint here.

    So … I can’t claim that I’ve done much original work here.

    Most of this is stolen from Jo Morgan’s indices in depth presentation. Sorry Jo!

    Normally I make a lot of stuff from scratch, but Jo’s work here is so good that I can’t really improve on it. If you get to see Jo do an ‘in depth’ presentation, go. The time and effort behind them is phenomenal.

    PowerPoint contains a section on writing things in index and expanded form.

    As well as some questions people might find a bit old fashioned. Also the first time I’ve put a ‘reveal all’ button on a page. Can’t believe I’ve not thought to do that before.

    I like these little discussion slides. I think they’re fun.

    Some UKMT questions, which I stole from this book. It’s a lovely little book.

    I also added a little problem solvey bit where we talk about powers of two and binary.

    Multiplying to come next (it’s basically copied and pasted from Jo again. Sorry Jo!)