Exponent Racer

Teaching Notes for Educators

Students race through the integer-exponent unit, choosing which skills to practice and answering each question with a lane change.

• The math: six skills, from evaluating a power (grade 6) to the product rule, quotient rule, power of a power, and negative exponents (grade 8), such as 5⁻² = 1/25.
• Vocabulary: one skill asks students to circle the base, the exponent, or the whole power in an expression, so the terms are tied to the symbols.
• Powers of ten: questions with a base of 10 offer only powers of ten as wrong answers, which trains students to count zeros carefully.
• Real life: powers of ten write the distance to the moon and the width of a cell, and exponents also describe doubling bacteria, compound interest, and computer storage.
• Speed and review: the question timer tightens with each correct answer to build fluency, and the game-over screen lists missed questions beside the correct answers.