Circle Template

  • Project
  • Facts
  • Poster
  • Card Game
  • App
  • About Us
  • Contact

Project

In the project "Estimate it!" examined the Institute of Physics Education, University of Münster, the skills of students in estimating simple physical quantities like length, mass, time and temperature, as well as more complex physical quantities (area, volume, velocity, acceleration, force and density).

A summary of the main results can be found under the menu item FACTS . The complete thesis can be found here.

Based on the results obtained special training materials to strengthen the estimation ability have been developed:

A Card Game and a relating App .


Facts

How accurate can students estimate physical quantities?

Which strategies do students use when estimating?


These questions were investigated in the project "Estimate it!". A summary of the main findings and facts can be found on the following slides. The complete PhD thesis (in German) is available here.


Accuracy of Estimates

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Estimation Strategies

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Poster

The collection and measurement of the benchmarks by students is particularly useful when the observed physical quantities originate from the everyday world and are easily determinable.

The measured objects can be collected and displayed graphically in the classroom.

This can be done by the students themselves for example, by measuring different objects in terms of different physical quantities and recording the results in a poster, or based on prefabricated materials. Two examples of such posters can be found below.

Poster Benchmarks

Poster Benchmarks (Template)

Card Game

The card game consists of 32 playing cards with estimating tasks for length, mass, time and temperature. In different rules students can playfully test their estimating skills against each other and simultaneously improve their estimation ability.

Through additional blank cards the students themselves can develop their own estimation tasks.

The card game is available here:

Print Template (Front)

Print Template (Back)

Print Template (Blank Card)

App

In addition to the card game, the app offers a variety of additional estimation tasks for length, mass, time and temperature. In different game modes,the students can playfully improve their estimation skills.

Pupils can create their own estimation tasks with pictures and share them with their classmates. Especially imaginative estimation tasks are provided as updates for all players.

Estimate! - What's your estimate?

About Us

The project "Estimate it!" is carried out at the Institute of Physics Education of the Westfälische Wilhelms-University in Münster as a PhD project by Lisa Stinken-Rösner . The work is supervised by Prof. Dr. Stefan Heusler betreut.

The main goal of the project is the analysis of strategies for estimating and the accuracy of the estimates obtained.

To implement learning and teaching materials, the institute of Physics Education cooperates with Charlotte Hintzmann , which is responsible for the illustrations and the design of the card game and the app. The web development of the app was performed by Sirach Lotz .

Lisa Stinken-Rösner - Science Educator

Lisa Stinken-Rösner

Science Educator
Charlotte Hintzmann - Illustrator

Charlotte Hintzmann

Illustrator
Sirach Lotz - Web-Developer

Sirach Lotz

Web-Developer

Contact

If you have questions, ideas or suggestions, we would greatly appreciate any feedback from you!

Adress: Wilhelm-Klemm-Str. 10, 48149 Münster, Germany
Email: lisa.stinken[at]wwu.de | Web: uni-muenster.de/Physik.DP

Copyright © 2016 Institut für Didaktik der Physik - Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster