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Adventures in Junior High and Mathematics

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10 Activities to Make Practicing Scientific Notation Awesome

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Scientific notation is such a great topic to study because it shows students a really practical application in math. I love how it makes sense that you would actually use scientific notation in many different situations. It’s fun to illustrate really, really big numbers, and really, really small numbers. Plus, these numbers show up again and again in students’ science classes. Scientific notation activities help students see just how practical and prevalent these numbers really are. I’m excited to share with you 10 activity ideas that are sure to be hits in your classroom.

Plus, converting to and from scientific notation seems to make sense to kids. I feel like this is a concept where students can have a lot of success. Whenever we get to a topic like this, not only do I want students to get it and rock it, I also want to leverage their success with this topic to feel more confidence in math and be willing to try harder on other topics.

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12 Distributive Property Activities That Rock

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Ever since I first learned about the distributive property, I’ve loved it. I can’t explain it, but the idea just made sense to me. The distributive property was one of the first things that I remember learning that was really conceptual and not just computational. Now, I get the chance to bring this same love of math to students everyday. Not all of my students share my love of distributive property (sadly), but I hope that through engaging activities and conceptual experiences they can start to enjoy it. [Read more…] about 12 Distributive Property Activities That Rock

12 Combining Like Terms Activities That Rock

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Combining like terms is such an important topic in 7th and 8th grade math. As teachers it often seems so intuitive to us that terms have to be alike in order to be combined. For some reason, though, many students need a lot of repetitions to really get this concept down pat. Even though we may teach combining like terms in isolation for a day or 2, it shows up again and again, incorporated into so many other middle school math concepts we study. So, I want to make sure that my students get the practice they need, dispersed throughout the year. Here’s 12 activities I use throughout the year to get students lots of practice combining like terms. [Read more…] about 12 Combining Like Terms Activities That Rock

Teaching Students to Analyze Function Graphs Like a Champ

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How to Model and Think Through Analyzing Function Graphs

To introduce students to analyzing function graphs, I start off with a model & think through activity. This activity lines up with Common Core math standard 8.F.B.5 to use functions to model relationships between quantities. This modelling activity consists of a presentation and the student follow along guide. As students follow along, they have to identify where the graph starts, what happens in the middle and where it ends. When they look at how it starts, they’re focusing on what exactly is being measured. They continue to answer all those same questions throughout the activity.

In this post I’ll show you step by step how to show students exactly what they need to do when analyzing function graphs, and how to make it stick in their minds forever! [Read more…] about Teaching Students to Analyze Function Graphs Like a Champ

11 Activities That Make Identifying Slope Easy

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Teaching slope is one of the most foundational topics that we teach in middle grades. If we don’t do it right the first time, we have to play catch-up for a long time. My earliest experiences teaching slope were frustrating because I didn’t understand what made it complicated for students. Students have to be able to find slope on a table, a graph, two coordinate points, a verbal description, and in an equation. When you lay those all out and count them up, that’s a lot of things to understand. I used to go too far, too fast. I mean, think about it. When kids learned how to count, they had years to get the numbers down. I could be patient and take the time necessary to give them a solid foundation with slope. [Read more…] about 11 Activities That Make Identifying Slope Easy