Description

What our Scientific Notation Basic Understanding lesson plan includes

Lesson Objectives and Overview: Scientific Notation Basic Understanding introduces students to the concept of scientific notation. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to write numbers using scientific notation. This lesson is for students in 6th grade.

Classroom Procedure

Every lesson plan provides you with a classroom procedure page that outlines a step-by-step guide to follow. You do not have to follow the guide exactly. The guide helps you organize the lesson and details when to hand out worksheets. It also lists information in the blue box that you might find useful. You will find the lesson objectives, state standards, and number of class sessions the lesson should take to complete in this area. In addition, it describes the supplies you will need as well as what and how you need to prepare beforehand.

Options for Lesson

Included with this lesson is an “Options for Lesson” section that lists a number of suggestions for activities to add to the lesson or substitutions for the ones already in the lesson. One optional addition to this lesson is to have your students link their science topic with scientific notation by researching how and when scientists use scientific notation. If you have more advanced students, you can discuss engineering notation and how that differs from scientific notation.

Teacher Notes

The teacher notes page includes a paragraph with additional guidelines and things to think about as you begin to plan your lesson. This page also includes lines that you can use to add your own notes as you’re preparing for this lesson.

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION BASIC UNDERSTANDING LESSON PLAN CONTENT PAGES

Scientific Notation Basic Understanding

The Scientific Notation Basic Understanding lesson plan includes two content pages. Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers often use scientific notation, also known as exponential notation, to write large and small numbers. You write scientific notation as a*10b, where the exponent b is an integer and the coefficient a is any real number (also called the significant) that is greater than or equal to 1 and less than 10.

Many calculators and computers display very large and very small numbers in scientific notation. Because some computers and calculators can’t easily represent exponents like 10⁷, they often use a different notation. In this notation, they use the letter E to mean “times ten raised to the power,” which replaces the “x 10ⁿ,” where the exponent is not superscripted but is displayed on the same level as the significand.

When written this way, the sign is often given even if positive (e.g., E+11 rather than E11). For example, 6.0221415E+23 or 6.0221415 e23 is the same as 6.0221415 × 1023 (Avogadro’s number: which is the calculated value of the number of atoms, molecules, etc. in a gram mole of any chemical substance.).

 Writing Numbers in Scientific Notation

The first step to write a number in scientific notation is to move the decimal point so it has a significand between 1 and 10. The second step is to count the number of decimal places moved in the first step. If the decimal point was moved to the left, the count is positive. If the decimal point is moved to the right, the count is negative. The third step is to write it as a product of the number from the first step and 10 raised to the power of the count, found in the second step.

Let’s take a look at a few examples! The number 734,000,000,000 in scientific notation is 7.34 x 10¹¹. The number 300 written in scientific notation is 3.0 x 10². Finally, the number .000015 written in scientific notation is 1.5 x 10⁻⁵.

Write a Scientific Number in Standard Form

To write a scientific number in standard form, you simply multiply the first number times the power of 10. If the power of 10 is positive, move the decimal place that many units to the right. If the power of 10 is negative, move the decimal place that many units to the left. Remember to add in any needed zeros.

Let’s take a look at some examples. The number 5.32 x 10⁷ written in standard form is 53,200,000. The number 3.1 x 10⁻⁵ written in standard form is 0.000031. Finally, the number 7.8 x 10⁻¹ written in standard form is 0.78.

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION BASIC UNDERSTANDING LESSON PLAN WORKSHEETS

The Scientific Notation Basic Understanding lesson plan includes three worksheets: an activity worksheet, a practice worksheet, and a homework assignment. You can refer to the guide on the classroom procedure page to determine when to hand out each worksheet.

BOSS AND ASSISTANT ACTIVITY

Students will need to work with partners for the activity portion of the lesson. The activity will involve some role-playing. Each student will take turns being the Boss and being the Assistant. The Boss will give directions step by step on how to solve a problem. (There are four problems total, so each students will get two turns per role.) The Assistant will write the problem and solve it using the boss’s instructions.

SCIENTIFIC NOTATION BASIC UNDERSTANDING PRACTICE WORKSHEET

For the practice worksheet, students will solve each problem of 16 total. Each problem will direct them to either write their answer in standard form or using scientific notation.

MOVIE EARNINGS HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

For the homework assignment, students will review a table that displays movies and their gross earnings. The earnings are in standard form, so students must write them in scientific notation in the space in the third column. Then they will write eight numbers in the next section in standard form.

Worksheet Answer Keys

This lesson plan includes answer keys for the practice worksheet and the homework assignment. If you choose to administer the lesson pages to your students via PDF, you will need to save a new file that omits these pages. Otherwise, you can simply print out the applicable pages and keep these as reference for yourself when grading assignments.