Lesson Plan: Power Rule of Derivatives Mathematics
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to use the power rule of derivatives and the derivative of a sum of functions to find the derivatives of polynomials and general power functions.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- relate the power rule of derivatives to the limit definition of derivatives,
- use the power rule of derivatives to differentiate functions of the form
,
- where is a positive or negative integer,
- where is a positive or negative fraction,
- understand how to apply the power rule of derivatives to functions involving sums and/or differences of terms,
- understand how to apply the constant multiple rule of derivatives.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- the limit definition of derivatives.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- finding (or approximating) derivatives using tables or graphs,
- functions involving products or quotients of other functions,
- the product rule,
- the quotient rule,
- the chain rule.
