Yeah! Spring Break is Here!

Students completed a problem solving activity in class today. Upon completion, students were excused for spring break.

Tonight's Homework: Congratulations! There will be no homework due on Tuesday, April 3rd. Enjoy your vacation--you've earned it!

Scientific Notation

Are you wondering why we are learning all these rules about products of powers and powers of products? Have you ever thought to yourself, "When will I ever use this in my life?" Well, when studying science, sometimes we use very large numbers (to refer to the distance to stars or planets) or very small numbers (to refer to the size of cells or their internal structures). Representing these numbers may include an awful lot of zeroes, so expressing them in scientific notation is useful. Since scientific notation involves using powers of 10, the product of powers and quotient of powers properties can be used.

Tonight's Homework: Read Lesson 8.4, and then do 8.4 ( 16 - 51, FCO and 53 - 57, all )

Working with Exponents Review

Now that we've worked with the properties that govern multiplication and division related to using exponents, it's time to review for tomorrow's quiz. Students will not be allowed to use calculators, and will need to know each of the multiplication and division properties.

Tonight's Homework: Page 469 ( 1 - 24, all ).

Dividing Expressions With Exponents

Surprisingly enough, the rules for dividing expressions that include exponents are quite predictable. The "Quotient of Powers" property states that you subtract the exponents in expressions where the bases are the same. The "Power of a Quotient" property suggests you distribute the exponent to both the terms in the numerator and denominator of the expression. Students will benefit from reading the lesson before beginning the homework assignment.

Tonight's Homework: Lesson 8.3 ( 3 - 47 and 51 )

Zero and Negative Exponents

Negative exponents follow a pattern that we reviewed in class. Quite simply, when working with negative exponents, you can turn the expression into one with positive exponents by writing the reciprocal of the original expression.

Working with zero exponents is very straight forward. Any number to the zero power is 1, as long as the base is not zero.

Tonight's Homework: Lesson 8.2 ( 14 - 42, FCO, 46 - 48 and 66 - 68 ).

Products, Powers and Properties

As we start chapter 8, there are many new properties to learn. Today we began with learning three properties related to simplifying expressions with exponents, including the Product of Powers Property, the Power of a Power Property, and the Power of Products Property. Students are advised to read Lesson 8.1 before completing tonight's homework.

Tonight's Homework: Lesson 8.1 ( 22 - 66, FCO and problem 75).

Great job on the chapter 7 test! I am VERY proud of all of you!

Chapter 7 Test (part 2)

Today in International Pi (π) Day. In honor of this day, students were rewarded with little πs while they completed the last part of their chapter 7 test.

Tonight's Homework: None--again! Can you believe it???

Chapter 7 Test (part 1) Taken Today

Students took the first half of the chapter 7 test today. The rest of the test will be given in class on Wednesday, March 14th. Good Luck!

Tonight's Homework: None, unless you choose to write a "Pi-ku" for me.

Reviewing Chapter 7 Word Problems

Students corrected the word problems assigned over the weekend, and we reviewed the ones that were particularly troublesome. Students then received information about what will be on the chapter 7 test.

Tonight's Homework: Study for the Chapter 7 test.

Changing Word Problems into Systems of Linear Equations

Students expressed a concern that setting up story problems is difficult. Because of this, I gave students 7 story problems to work on, and helped set up equations for about half of the problems. These problems are due on Monday, complete with meaningful variables, equations and check steps.

Tonight's Homework: Complete the green word problem worksheet. For extra credit, you may wish to complete page 443 or page 821 (or both, for even more extra credit).

Reviewing Chapter 7

We are quickly coming to the end of the chapter, so that means it's time to review for the chapter test, which will be given early next week.

Tonight's Homework: Complete all problems on pages 440 - 442.

Applying Systems of Equations to Real Situations

Systems of equations can be used to solve everyday problems. Students received two worksheets today with problems that relate to situations that might exist in real life, and were asked to complete each.

Tonight's Homework: Complete the "Candy Combinations" and "Nickels and Dimes" worksheets.

Graphing Systems of Inequalities

We reviewed the story problem homework, and then reviewed how to graph inequalities. Once the review was done, we looked at how we could graph systems of inequalities and determine the range of values that would satisfy each of the inequalities in the system.

Tonight's Homework: Page 436 ( 15 - 25, odd and problem 42 ).

Setting Up Story Problems Algebraically

Today we reviewed a couple of problems from last week's homework, and then turned half of tonight's story problems into algebraic sentences.

Tonight's Homework: Both sides of the worksheet handed out in class tonight.

Are You Kidding? No Homework!

Students completed a problem solving task about golf pricing during a shortened class today. Because of this, there was no new homework assigned for over the homework. Enjoy the weekend, and come back ready to tackle story problems on Monday.

Tonight's Homework: NONE!!!

Solving Word Equations with Systems of Equations, part 2

Today's lesson continues having us set up equations from story problems and then use those equations to solve systems of equations. These are sometimes cumbersome, but you can do these problems if you read (and think) carefully.

Tonight's Homework: Do problems 52 -56 on page 423, 64 and 65 on page 424, problem 25 on page 803, and problem 7 on page 821.