In the previous lesson, students multiplied and divided numbers by 10 or by 100 and noticed place-value patterns and relationships. This lesson continues to look at patterns when several factors of 10 are multiplied together. It also introduces a convenient strategy for recording these numbers: exponential notation for positive powers of 10. Students represent numbers up to 1,000,000,000 and apply their understanding of multiplication by 10 and its powers to see why exponential notation is a convenient way to represent certain large numbers. This lesson includes an optional activity that allows students to explore the number 1 trillion.

What unfinished learning or misunderstandings do students have about powers of 10 and exponential notation? How can you leverage those partial understandings in a positive way to further the understanding of the class?