Scientific notation worksheets

Teaching notes

Make the practice count

• Choose Understanding lesson in the settings for 10 tasks: guided conversions, zero exponent, coefficient normalization, two error checks and an independent measurement task. Its separate key explains how each transformation preserves the value. Foundation uses one decimal digit and powers -4 to 4; Extended uses three decimal digits with internal zeros and powers -8 to 8. The lesson is English only and fixes exponent coverage; the practice exponent and language controls are disabled with an explanation.
• This page practices conversion in both directions. For calculations, use Scientific Notation Operations to multiply, divide or raise scientific-notation numbers to powers; addition and subtraction are outside that activity’s scope.
• The absolute exponent ranges from 1 to 9. Enable exponent zero to include numbers already between 1 and 10.
• Mixed practice includes positive and negative exponents in both conversion directions. Enabling zero includes it in each half too.
• A coefficient can have up to four fractional digits. Trailing zeros with no numerical effect are omitted; these are value-conversion exercises, not significant-figure tests.
• Count place shifts before adding any zeros. A negative exponent means the ordinary number is less than one.
• Exponents are raised above the baseline in both the preview and downloaded PDF. Long notes or translated instructions can add pages.