Friday, March 27, 2009

Fractional Exponents!

I subbed for Wes yesterday. They were learning about fractional exponents. Words like these are terrifying to me, not to mention that there were square roots involved. The first class was way smart and I just put up the notes and they did the assignment, but by the end of the day, I had to figure out how to do the entire thing and be helpful. I would say, "When Mr. Hall comes back tomorrow, he will give you a mathematical version of this lesson."
Now let's think about it. How many times in a week do you deal with fractional exponents? How many times in a week do you deal with exponents? I just don't like them and I have a huge prejudice against anything with the radical sign. I would rather deal with an untamed lion than one of those. So when the kids ask, When are we going to use this in life? it is difficult to come up with an answer.

2 comments:

Tiffany A. said...

Well at least you were able to figure out how to do it and be helpful. I could no way figure out how to do them! Math is not my strong subject...after my last college course of math I vowed to never take a math class again.
And no, I don't use fractional exponents in my daily life.

Dianah said...

Please say to told the kid's you are never going to use this I don't know why Mr. Hall is even teaching this.

The only people I know that use fractional exponents are teachers that torture students with them.

Dy