Design Plan ‐ Simplify Square Roots Prime Factors - Content-Interactives/simplify_square_roots_prime_factors GitHub Wiki

Simplify Square Roots using the Prime Factorization Method

Overview

This interactive will walk students through simplifying square roots using the prime factorization method. See second interactive in this read for inspiration: https://flexbooks.ck12.org/cbook/ck-12-interactive-middle-school-math-8-for-ccss/section/10.3/primary/lesson/simplifying-square-roots-and-cube-roots-msm8-ccss/

How it Works

Step 1

• It will first show the given number in the square root.
• The number should be a random number between 1 and 200 and able to be simplified (at least 1 pair of prime factors. See full list below)

Step 2

• After clicking the next arrow >, the number is shown to split into its prime factors.
• Students are then to click on all pairs of prime factors. For each pair, there will be an animation of the numbers combining as they move out of the square root and to the left.
• Clicked numbers can highlight. If a third number is clicked, unhighlight the first one.
• Once two are correctly highlighted, start the animation automatically.

Step 3

• Once complete, the remaining numbers on each side will combine showing the simplified square root.
• Allow students to go back through previous steps with a back arrow <.

Have Flexi with a speech bubble explain some of the steps. "Split the number into its prime factors." "Find all the matching pairs." "It's simplified!"

List of simplifiable numbers: 4, 8, 9, 12, 16, 18, 20, 24, 25, 27, 28, 32, 36, 40, 44, 45, 48, 49, 50, 52, 54, 56, 60, 63, 64, 72, 75, 76, 80, 81, 84, 88, 90, 96, 98, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 117, 120, 121, 124, 125, 126, 128, 132, 135, 136, 140, 144, 147, 148, 150, 152, 153, 156, 160, 162, 164, 168, 169, 171, 172, 176, 180, 184, 188, 189, 192, 196, 198, 200