Prime Factorization Code-Breaker Activity
12 differentiated problems on prime factorization. Students must rewrite the integers in prime factor index form to crack the code. This is a wonderful activity to keep students engaged during a spiral review, partner work, or homework.
Each question corresponds to a matching answer that will reveal one letter from the code. Not only does this make it fun and rewarding for students but it also makes it easy for students and teachers to know if the worksheet has been completed correctly.
The code consists of random letters so the students have to solve the problem rather than try to guess a sentence from a riddle.
You can download this Prime Factorization Activity here.
"Prime Factorization" is breaking a number down into the product of prime numbers that multiply together to make the original number.
Some examples of the prime factorizations in this resource are:
Example 1: What is 140 in prime factor form?
Starting from the smallest prime number, which is 2, we have:
140 ÷ 2 = 70
So, it was divisible exactly by 2. Since 70 is not a prime number we can continue to break it down further.
Try 2 again:
70 ÷ 2 = 35
35 is not a prime number, so we continue to break it down. 35 is not divisible by 2, but we can divide by 5:
35 ÷ 5 = 7
We can go no further as all the factors are now primes.
140 = 2 × 2 × 5× 7
(or 140 = 2^2 × 5 × 7 using exponents)
A solution key is included:
A further explanation of Prime Factorization is provided in a video by the Khan Academy here.
Some other resources you may like:
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