Estimating Objects (Investigation)

How many buttons are there in your classroom right now

 

Discussion

• Did you only think about buttons that were on clothing? Could buttons be found anywhere else? 
• What was your definition of a button?
• How did you go about working that out?  
• If I changed the question to "How many in the school?", what could you do to work that out effectively?  
• What mathematical operations are you using and how can we generalise from the classroom answer to the school, or among the schools in your area?  

Taking it Further

• What other objects could be counted or estimated?  

• Do the same strategies apply?  Or do we need to use different strategies depending on the objects chosen?

• Why would people or companies need to estimate things like these?