Awhile ago  my math teacher taught a lesson about negative exponents. She said that you can not work with them. In order to get rid of the negative, you have to make it into a fraction. To do that, you must add 1 underneath the whole number. Then it becomes a fraction, and it usually is less than 1. Take 5^-2 as an example. You would put a 1 below it to make it a fraction. Then it becomes 1 over 5^2. The negative is no longer there. After that, you just simplify and you get 1 over 25. That is why 1 over 25 is less than 1 because it is just a part of whole.  You could also just multiply one-fifth times one-fifth and you will still get the same answer. I think that method is pretty easy to do. This math lesson really helped me understand the value of negative exponents and how to get rid of them and make them become fractions.
 
      What do I know about exponents? Well, I don't know that much about it, but I do know that it is used in math and it's one big number with a smaller number on top of it!  I also know that when you pronounce it, it has to be "to the power of." For example, two to the third power. That means that two is the whole number (big number) and three is the exponent (small number). I haven't really had a lot of practice with exponents, but I do know how it works. 
     The whole point of exponents and "to the power of" is simply meaning that that whole number, the big one, is being multiplyed by what ever the power is. Take one to the third power for an example. That means that one is being mulitipled three times. Now, you're probably thinking, why not just mulitply it by 3? Well, in this case, it would be the same answer, but in others, it won't. For example, there is an exponent that is seventh to the second power. It is not seven times two, it is seven times seven. You get two different answers from both of these problems. 
     I have previously done this in sixth grade, I think. So this is all I could really remember of it. Hopefully, I get to learn more about exponents and refresh my mind.