Thinking through Fermi problems: What proximity of the problem context is more attainable to promote students’ model-based estimations?

Date

2026-01-01

Author

Sevinç, Şerife
Albarracín, Lluís
Arıcan, Burcu

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This study presents an empirical analysis of 6th-grade students’ estimation-based thinking in two Fermi problems that are with different proximity to the problem context based on the following characteristics: (1) involving real-life elements within/beyond-direct-reach of students’ physical surroundings and (2) involving the size of the quantities within/beyond-direct-reach of students’ reference tools for estimation. Twelve turkish 6th-grade students worked in pairs on the Fermi problems. The findings indicated that the proximity of the problem context shaped students’ model-based estimation on Fermi problems by affording processes characterized as sensemaking-facilitator, estimation–referent identifier, and strategy-promoter. Students’ model-based estimation indicated that the closer proximity of the context helped students to make sense of the problem and initiate an estimation relying on within-direct-reach reference tools. However, the lack of physical closeness and the larger size of the quantity created a challenge in developing a model-based estimation, which encouraged students to develop a strategy.

Subject Keywords

affordances of context proximity, Fermi problems, Model-based estimation, proximity of the problem context

URI

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=105039145984&origin=inward
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/119582

Collections

Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Article