Exponents All Around Us

 

Slice of Life Writing Challenge – March 20, 2020

I used to teach 5th grade and we touched on exponents. It was like teaching the students a secret, the magic of the x and the tiny number tucked in the right corner. I tried to make it meaningful, showing an old video on the power of 10. It helped. A little. But mostly it was just a cool inside secret and trick they felt they were now in the know of.

 

Exponents, exponential, they are actually concepts that can be hard to wrap your head around. In education, we are always taught to make meaning, to make the learning meaningful to the students, to bring their life into the learning and connect it. We rewrite math word problems putting their names and likes in each one. We make up songs to teach social studies concepts or science and match it with a familiar tune. As I watch the news and the infected count is listed each day on the tv screen, all I can think of is the power of exponents. Each day the number roughly doubles and I think x to the power of 2. It is a sad, troubling example of exponents in life, but a powerful one.

 

I also see it as I walk the dog in the morning. Each day the number of people I see seems to go down by half. The number of doors shuttered reduced by half. Is that a negative exponent? I am not sure. The middle-aged man in black shorts no longer runs his usual circuit passing our block, nor the older woman with the friendly labrador. I also see signs of hope and help posted on telephone poles, in windows, in chalk on the sidewalk, that also seems to be affected by the power of exponents, doubling each day. Rainbows, shamrocks and well wishes painted by children dot the windows on my walk. It fills me with hope.

 

This troubling time will yield lots of examples for teaching and learning in the future. The nice part is they are all examples we will collectively know and understand as we are living through it together.

2 thoughts on “Exponents All Around Us

  1. Thanks for writing! Our school superintendent sent us all a you tube video using exponents to explain why he was requesting we stay at home during this time. It was a fun lesson while getting across a very serious subject. Stay well.

  2. There are so many math and science examples constantly in our view. It really highlights how important it is for students to become number-literate. Some of the graphs are more alarming when you don’t look closely at the numbers. I’m sure these will be sued for many year to come as real-life math examples.

    I am not noticing the difference in my neighbourhood yet. Maybe because I am not usually home during the day and don’t know what “normal” day time behaviour is in my neighbourhood.

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