While tutoring a new students last week, I was surprised, but perhaps shouldn't have been, that they didn't have any appreciation for how much a gram was, or a kilogram, or how many pens would fit in my pencil case. Time for some research of how to best to engage and educate...
I came across the game above and although it's a leap too far right now, it could be easily adapted to a range of objects that the student would be more aware of, and perhaps even things they could round up in the home after doing the task to check their answer.
Meanwhile for whole classes as well as tutoring, Andrew Stadel has created a fantastic website called
Estimation 180 where you input your estimation into a google form, can see other peoples' responses and also get an answer, for all those that require a sense of resolution. In his blog he suggests using it as a start of lesson activity with students recording their guess and confidence level in the back of their book.
