I love teaching scientific notation. It’s so organized and it helps to conceptualize really large and small numbers. I mean, these are the numbers scientists use in real life and you get to talk about space. All of those things just make my little math heart burst with joy. We don’t teach scientific notation until December, but it’s something I look forward to every year. I know that my students can feel my enthusiasm, and we just have a lot of fun with it.
In this unit, students get to compare numbers in scientific notation and complete operations with scientific notation. We get to literally work as scientists. I introduce students to scientific notation with a cool presentation that gets them thinking about really big and small numbers, and then we build our notebook for this topic. As with other topics, we use 5 components in our notebook to create a cohesive set of notes for scientific notation.
The 5 components in the interactive math notebook
I’ve streamlined the notes in my notebooks to having the following 5 components for each topic: I Can Statements, background building, graphic organizers, practice, and anchor charts. While there are so many things that you could include in interactive notebooks, this is what I’ve found works for me and my students.
Let’s look through what these 5 components look like with scientific notation and check out the whole notes unit for my 8th graders’ interactive notebooks.
I can statements for scientific notation and operations with scientific notation
In the 8th grade math standards there’s two different standards for scientific notation. One of them relates to comparing numbers in scientific notation, and the other one talks about using operations with numbers in scientific notation. So, we start each of those topics with the I Can statements for scientific notation to show students just what we’re learning and help them focus on our learning objectives. Then, after that topic we’ll start the cycle again with the operations with scientific notation. Below is the I Can Statements page just for the operations with scientific notation.
Over the years I’ve tweaked these two objectives and I’ve found that students have to practice adjusting numbers back to scientific notation. If they can’t do that part, they really miss out on what they’re trying to do. It has become its own objective for students when I teach this topic.
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Building background for scientific notation
Scientific notation is a very understandable topic for kids. It’s concrete and they can see where it works in the world.
After introducing the overall goals for the unit with the “I can statements”, I like to have a notebook activity that will build students’ background or reinforce key vocabulary they’ll need. In this activity, students put a series of scenarios in order from least to greatest. These include things like “length of a grain of sand” and “number of insects on earth”.
I love this activity for scientific notation because students get to see some real world applications of scientific notation, and they have to use their prior understanding to justify their choices. Students can debate each other and they usually come up with awesome questions while trying to figure out which one is the greatest.
Graphic organizers for scientific notation
A major purpose for our notes is for students to have a reference to go back to throughout the unit. Students need to have something they can refer to when practicing and reviewing later. I use a few different graphic organizers to show students the process of converting with scientific notation, operations with scientific notation, and how many times bigger a number is than another number.
Here’s 3 graphic organizers I use to help my students record their learning about scientific notation:
Converting to and from scientific notation
I like to make my foldables simple. This foldable gives the students the 4 questions to ask to convert to and from scientific notation. At this point they’ve already seen these 4 questions when we completed the introductory presentation for this unit. After that presentation we go through the step by step process of converting to and from scientific notation with a large number and a small number. This is a simple resource to send students back to when they forget what to do.
Operations with scientific notation
Learning how to use the operations with scientific notation is a little complicated because students have to remember when to do what for four different operations. We walk through each one very explicitly. I usually do not try to do all of the operations on one day. I find that it works better to have to do one or two at a time and then practice it to cement it in their brains. We also add additional examples in the notebook for students to refer to and as guided practice.
How many times bigger is it?
Part of the standard for scientific notation is for students to compare numbers in scientific notation. This foldable walks them through the process of figuring out how many times bigger one number is than the other. It’s not too difficult and it gives them another chance to see that ratios and fractions are just division problems. Also, with this concept you have a chance to get kids writing. Once they have figured it out they can write a sentence that states how many times bigger one number is than the other.
Getting some practice with scientific notation
I’m a strong believer in the I Do, We Do, You Do method. This guided practice page for the notebook gives me the opportunity to do some problems with the students. We complete this particular page on different days because we learn the different parts on different days.
As you can see, I model for students how to annotate the problem to help justify what I’m doing. This is something that I expect students to do when they’re doing their independent practice.
Some extra practice with adjusting to scientific notation
I include an additional practice page in this unit for students to focus on adjusting to scientific notation. One year when I was teaching this topic, I noticed that students struggled to adjust their answer back to scientific notation. So, I created this practice page. It gives them a lot of a practice in a short amount of time. It can go in the notebook or be turned into the teacher.
Using an anchor chart to help with learning
The last part of the notes unit is a cheat sheet, or anchor chart, to help students remember key ideas as they move into practice. I’m not sure where I found the idea for this cheat sheet a couple of years ago, but it’s been very helpful for students because it’s easy to remember. This page helps students keep straight whether they’re adding to or subtracting from the exponent. It’s based on the fact that lollipops(left) are positive and rats(right) are negative.
Another cool thing about this trick for students is that even my middle school student who love to argue don’t really try to argue that rats are positive, which is awesome. So, they just have to remember that if they’re moving the decimal left(lollipop) that’s positive, which means they add to the exponent. This is just a great visual to help students remember this.
Putting it all together
So, there you have it, scientific notation in the 8th grade math interactive notebook. I hope this has inspired you in your own teaching of this fun concept. Always keep in mind that you have to use what works for you and your students. Feel free to pick and choose and make your notebook just right for you. Or, grab this whole set of notes ready to print and go here.
One other thing to remember with this notebook unit is to remember to send students back to the notebook as a reference. I really focus on spending time teaching students just how to use their notes when practicing. If students aren’t going back to their notes, then we’re not getting what we can out of them. For practice activities, check out “10 Activities to Make Practicing Scientific Notation Awesome” or “9 Operations with Scientific Notation Activities”.
Thanks so much for reading. Until next time!
