In this lesson, students encounter expressions that involve exponents as well as another operation. They are prompted to consider whether to first compute the value of the part of the expression with an exponent, or carry out the other operation before raising the result to a certain power. 

Students begin by recalling ideas about the surface area and volume of a cube, which provides a concrete context for writing expressions with exponents 2 and 3, as well as to think about whether to square or cube a number before or after multiplying or adding. Then they consider two ways of finding the value of the expression and learn about the conventional order of operations. Finally, students practice applying the convention to evaluate expressions involving exponents, grouping symbols, and another operation.