So… exponents and variables and … zero power. It’s a “touch base on this” section in pre-Algebra, nothing huge or convoluted (and I don’t *think* negative powers).
It just might stick. Things squared? Write it out as this times itself until you don’t have to. Zero power? write it out as base/base which is one. (2a + b)^0? “But that’s got …” (Student points to complication… have I mentioned this is a student whose first response almost always involves visual and kinesthetic thinking, not verbal? Not that there’s any such thing as learning styles, of course.) Then … writes it out as a fraction and “it’s 1.” We go over the ‘verbal’ part. Anything to the zero power is 1.
This also worked for the 6a^0 … 6 dot a/a … six times 1… 6.
(No, I wouldn’t make everybody do this… but … this is an example of things that make a mess of symbols more cognitively accessible to a student.)
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Posted on September 21, 2017
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