Powers and Roots

This SMILE resource contains two packs of games, investigations, worksheets and practical activities supporting the teaching and learning of powers and roots, from identifying square numbers to investigating numbers expressed as powers.

Powers and roots pack one contains twelve work cards with a wide variety of activities covering square numbers, triangle numbers, finding square roots, powers, and finding cube roots.

Powers and roots pack two contains fifteen work cards with activities requiring students to investigate square roots, multiply and divide numbers in index form, work with powers of ten, use standard form in context, use the power button on a calculator to deal with fractional powers, investigate Fibonacci spirals and square root spirals.

SMILE (Secondary Mathematics Individualised Learning Experiment) was initially developed as a series of practical activities for secondary school students by practising teachers in the 1970s. It became a complete individualised scheme based around a network of activity cards and assessments.

Related resources include answers to all of the cards and test books and answers.

Show health and safety information

Please be aware that resources have been published on the website in the form that they were originally supplied. This means that procedures reflect general practice and standards applicable at the time resources were produced and cannot be assumed to be acceptable today. Website users are fully responsible for ensuring that any activity, including practical work, which they carry out is in accordance with current regulations related to health and safety and that an appropriate risk assessment has been carried out.