Video/Exponentials

These videos were filmed at Masiphumelele Primary School, Khayelitsha, W. Cape, South Africa, in March 2012. They are from a lesson on the powers of two.

About Masiphumelele Primary School

In 2012, the situation of the school was as follows: The school is what's called "Quintile 3". The funding of schools depends on the level of the schools’ quintile. A school in quintile 1 is said to be the poorest of schools, taking into account the socio-economic status of the community around that school (poverty, unemployment, dependency on social grants, etc.), as determining factors for classifying a school. Many families come from rural areas in the Eastern Cape. All the same issues that were described for Luzuko Primary School also apply.

The school was built in the mid 1990s and has a large school hall and two functional computer rooms. The number of learners (across grades 1 to 7) is 1237. Grade R has 63 learners. The learners go on to about 14 different High Schools, some of which specialize in commerce or in mathematics and science. The performance levels are better than other schools but still not good. This is a popular primary school and oversubscribed.

For the learners and most teachers Xhosa is their first language and English their second language. Lessons are in Xhosa up to grade 3 with English taught as an additional language. From Grade 4 to Grade 7 all lessons are supposed to be taught in English with differing amounts of code switching. The Principal has said that she thought that the use of Xhosa was often not helpful, for example for the same shapes there are several different Xhosa words in different regions and no common agreement about which one to use. Public tests are all in English.

About the lessons

The lesson introduces the idea of exponentials, and in particular powers of 2. To get a sense of how quickly the exponential function rises, learners go to the school hall and use long rolls of paper to draw the function.

In the second lesson, the learners think about how to represent 2^x on a single sheet of paper.

Watch all videos

Use the "playlist" button in the top right or the "|<" and ">|" to skip through the playlist.

Video list

Wiki page	Title	Description	Duration	Series	Episode	Project
Video/Pindi exponentials 2.1-1.m4v	Introducing a problem with a story	Pindi introduces the problem ("The powers of two"). She begins the lesson by telling a story. She asks the students which option they would choose: A fixed amount of money, or a smaller amount which doubles every week. Learners give their opinion.	2:35	Video/Exponentials	01	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.1-2.mp4	Learners doubling numbers	Two learners are working together to repeatedly double numbers and work out how much gold the man should receive.	01:01	Video/Exponentials	02	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.1-3.mp4	Learners check answers	Pindi looks at the work of a pair of learners and questions whether they think a particular answer is correct. They are offered a calculator to check answers but prefer to work out for themselves.	00:36	Video/Exponentials	03	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.1-5.mp4	Involving class in answering a question	A learner has noticed that the beginning of next week is called 'week 1' and asks what the current week could be called. The teacher asks the rest of the class, and another question quickly follows.	01:05	Video/Exponentials	04	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.1-7.mp4	Giving answers and class making corrections	Pindi stops the class to give answers to the class. She encourages the learners to recite answers together and make corrections.	01:29	Video/Exponentials	05	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.2-9.mp4	Class questioning and confusion	Pindi asks the class what they think the answer to two exponents multiplied together might be. She asks for the answer in exponent form which confuses a couple of learners.	01:19	Video/Exponentials	06	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.2-10.mp4	Giving an example	Pindi follows up on the previous question and looks at why the rules of exponents work with the example on the board.	01:20	Video/Exponentials	07	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.2-11.mp4	Pair work and explanations	Learners are instructed to work in pairs to answer questions with an added explanation of the method they used and why it works.	01:28	Video/Exponentials	08	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.3-14.mp4	Table of values	Pindi helps the class to fill in their table of values which will be used to plot a graph of y=2^x.	00:42	Video/Exponentials	09	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.3-17.mp4	Learners use measuring cards	Pindi shows what the graph should look like as learners use their measuring card to mark out points on the graph	00:37	Video/Exponentials	10	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.3-19.mp4	Learners divide into groups	Learners enter the hall and divide into their groups to finish plotting their graphs.	01:25	Video/Exponentials	11	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.4-21.mp4	Examing completed graphs	Pindi gathers the students back together to examine all of the completed graphs.	00:31	Video/Exponentials	12	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.4-22.mp4	Checking and demonstrating plotting points	Pindi and the class look at all the graphs next to each other and check for mistakes. Pindi demonstrates how to plot the points.	01:59	Video/Exponentials	13	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.4-23.mp4	Pindi checks one group's work	Pindi checks one group's work and helps them to make corrections.	01:10	Video/Exponentials	14	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.4-24.mp4	Pupils return with graphs	The pupils are instructed to return with their graphs to the classroom.	01:13	Video/Exponentials	15	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi Exponentials2.4-26.mp4	Pupil make predictions	Pupils put their graphs up on the wall and mark in bold pen increasing values of 2^x. The graphs quickly get much taller and pupils are asked to predict where the next marks would be.	02:51	Video/Exponentials	16	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi exponentials 2.3-18.m4v	Classroom management	Classroom management. Pindi asks the learners to go to the school hall to continue the investigation.	1:56	Video/Exponentials	18	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi exponentials 2.4-21.m4v	Whole group work	Pindi asking the groups to come together with their work, so that the work can be compared and discussed.	0:33	Video/Exponentials	21	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource
Video/Pindi exponentials 2.4-23.m4v	Graph group work	Group work activity on drawing the graph. Pindi shows the use of the "ruler" to a group.	1:04	Video/Exponentials	23	The OER4Schools Professional Learning Resource