Elementary and/or math teachers...quick question!

[KarenB]

I am taking a "Teaching Math" class and I have to teach a lesson tomorrow. The topic is measurement and the grade is second.

Part of the lesson is estimation and actual measurement. I need to make certain the children understand the word "estimation."

Can I interchange the word estimation and guess? I have read that an estimation is a guess and I have read that a guess is completely different than an estimation.

Thanks!
Karen

[Rajah]

I don't think you can interchange them, no, because you could estimate that there are 500 jelly beans in the jar or guess there are 5. But if you add the word "Best" to guess so you have "best guess", I think that's about the same.

[emmy]

I just asked my 3 kids- going into K,1 and 2. The youngest said guess a number that is closest and the oldest said an educated guess. My middle one just said "tell how many". So I would say tell that that it is their best guess or and educated guess.

[Fantasia Girl]

I am in school to be an elementary teacher too! I was thinking that you could call it an educated or "best" guess. An idea or guess that one makes after they are educated on the subject. For instance, after you "know" what 1 ft. looks like, you can make an educated guess or an estimate about the length of something just by looking at it. It's obvious a crayon is not 1 ft. long, but a book could be.

Does this even make any sense?:rolleyes: :confused: I have a hard time expressing myself on here:p :) ;)

[believe]

I would say no. An estimation is where you take into consideration different factors. Example: If I give you 519 beans and you already had 712 beans, estimate how many beans you would have-1200 using rounding. If you say guess it can be any wide range. To me a guess is you just pull out a number. On thing you can do is ask your students to define what a guess is and what an estimate is and see if they think it is the same thing.

[KarenB]

I like the idea of asking the students what a guess is and what an estimate is. I was thinking like Rajah explained with the jelly bean example.

I also like the phrase "tell how many" emmy's middle schooler said.

I think I can say "Estimate, or tell how many inches you think, is the length of the blackboard."

Webster's Thesaurus has "guess" under estimate. The dictionary throws in the word judge.

Fantasia Girl.....I am finding more and more that the words we as adults use over and over again are the so very hard to explain in a simple way at times.

Thanks!
Karen

[Saffron]

:earseek: Karen! Are you back in school already! OMG!!! That went so fast!!! :earseek:

[disykat]

Here's how I would introduce estimation. Hold up a little jar of beans etc.(or string to measure something) and tell them you're going to guess - then guess some absurd numbers and ask if they think you're close. Then you can go on to explain how estimation is making a more educated guess and talk about strategies.