From: Claudia (for Teacher2Teacher Service)
Date: Jun 02, 1998 at 22:03:46
Subject: Re: Montessori Math "to the power of"

Skill... drill... kill!  You nailed that one. I am not sure what would possess 
someone to take a chore and make it so monotone and boring! Patterns are 
always 
a preferable idea to use in mathematics - they are fundamental!

I would get my hands on at least a scientific calculator and show your son how 
to use the exponent key!  10^10, for instance. I think I would find examples 
of 
things that are 10^10 big, so that he realizes why understanding the concept 
of 
multiplying a number over and over usually yields a very big number in 
comparison to what you started with, except for 1. You might ask him how many 
ways a 10-question true-false test could be answered. It is always amazing to
know that you multiply 2 times 2 for the number of questions. So in this case, 
it would be 2^10.

There are a lot of ways to answer, considering there is only one right way!

Hope these ideas help.

Post a public discussion message
Ask Teacher2Teacher a new question