What students learn
The integer-exponent unit is a handful of rules that students mix up constantly: when do you add exponents, when do you multiply them, and what does a negative exponent mean? Exponent Racer lets students pick exactly which of six skills to practice, so a student still working on evaluating powers and a student ready for negative exponents can play the same game side by side.
- Evaluating Powers (grade 6): 4³ = 64.
- Multiplying and Dividing Powers: same base, add or subtract the exponents.
- Power of a Power: multiply the exponents.
- Negative Exponents: 5−2 = 1/25.
- Exponents of Zero and One: any nonzero base to the zero power is 1.
- Vocabulary: identify the base, the exponent, or the whole power in an expression.
How the game works
A question appears at the top of the screen and the answer choices come down the road in lanes. Students steer with the arrow keys (or WASD, or the on-screen joystick on a tablet) into the lane with the right answer. A timer on each question gets a little shorter with every correct answer, which builds fluency without starting students at full speed.
Street Racing is the main mode. Finishing it unlocks Maximum Velocity, an endless mode that includes negative powers and exponents. Correct answers also earn coins for a shop of cars, trails and boosts, which gives students a reason to keep practicing after the lesson ends. When a run ends, the game-over screen lists every missed question next to its correct answer.
Worked examples
Product rule: 3² × 3⁴
Same base, so add the exponents: 3^(2+4) = 3^6
Quotient rule: 7⁵ ÷ 7²
Same base, so subtract the exponents: 7^(5-2) = 7^3
Power of a power: (2³)²
Multiply the exponents: 2^(3×2) = 2^6 = 64
Negative exponent: 3² × 3−5
Add the exponents: 3^(2 + -5) = 3^-3 = 1/3^3 = 1/27
Common mistakes and how the game handles them
Multiplying the base by the exponent (thinking 4³ = 12). Wrong answer choices are built from exactly this mistake, so a student who makes it will see "12" waiting in a lane.
Adding exponents in a power of a power ((2³)² = 2⁵). The explanation after a miss names the rule: "MULTIPLY the exponents."
Treating a negative exponent as a negative number (5−2 = −25). Negative Exponents questions offer that answer as a trap, and the review screen shows the reciprocal.
Miscounting zeros in powers of ten. Questions with a base of 10 offer only other powers of ten as wrong answers (10&sup4; against 10³ and 10⁵), so students have to count carefully instead of eliminating by size.
Ways to use it in class
- Printables. A free worksheet with an answer key and a two-to-a-page exit ticket match this game, ready to print or save as a PDF.
- Differentiated practice. Assign skills by group: some students race only Evaluating Powers while others take on Negative Exponents.
- Warm-up. One Street Racing run to open class. Students write down one question they missed from the review screen.
- Before a quiz. Students pick the skill they feel least sure about and play only that one.
- Exit ticket. "Simplify (2³)² × 2−4. Name each rule you used."
Discussion questions
- Write 2⁵ ÷ 2⁵ two ways. What does that tell you about 2⁰?
- Why does the product rule only work when the bases are the same?
- Is 10−3 bigger or smaller than 0? Than 1?
Real-world connections
Powers of ten are how scientists write very large and very small numbers, from the distance to the moon (about 3.8 × 10⁵ km) to the width of a cell. Exponents also describe anything that doubles or grows by a percent: bacteria, compound interest, and computer storage (a kilobyte is 2¹⁰ bytes).
Standards
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.EE.A.1Write and evaluate numerical expressions involving whole-number exponents. (Evaluating Powers)
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.EE.A.1Know and apply the properties of integer exponents to generate equivalent numerical expressions. (Multiplying and Dividing Powers, Power of a Power, Negative Exponents, Exponents of Zero and One, Vocabulary)
Access and privacy
No accounts and no student data. Coins and unlocks save only in that browser on that device. It plays with the keyboard alone, a mouse, or touch controls on a tablet.