Estimation
I have to admit that I was not a believer in Estimation before I did a little research and saw first hand how it helped. I do recall estimation during my math lessons as a child. It was short and simple. I was taught to find the correct answer not an estimation in most circumstances. My son Logan greatly benefited from estimation. He struggled with addition. Once he had his addition facts memorized, he started to struggle with carrying during addition. Then his homework started to say find the ball park estimate. I honestly thought to myself, why is he wasting his time with this. I could not have been more wrong. Once he got the basics of his ball park estimations down, he was more easily able to find the answer to his addition problems. When he would do the ball park estimation first, he could check his answer against that to know if he was in 'the park' with his answer.
While investigating estimation, I found many websites saying that estimation is a skill for life. Estimation is used so much in everyday life: while shopping, building or paying bills. You will use estimation to get an idea of how much your bill at Walmart will be or how much mesh wire you need to cover your garden, so the birds stop eating your blueberries (two actual estimation I used this week).
According to Webster, Estimate means:
to judge tentatively or approximately the value, worth or significance of to determine roughly the size, extent or nature of, to produce the statement of the approximate cost.
What does this mean for math students????
Estimation should be taught, not only to help students with their understanding of math, but for real life situations such as the video.
Estimation is a good enough answer, but not the exact answer. As I thought about this, I thought this might be hard for some students to grasp. Why would you want a good enough answer when you can get the exact answer? Why do we use estimation?
- it can save you time
- it can save you money
- it can help you find that exact answer
- it is used in everyday life situations
