A few years ago, the estimation exercise shown in figure I appeared in some text materials for the middle grades. The source went on to say that the Oxford Dictionary defines the word “ floccipaucinihilipilification” as “the action of estimating is worthless.” Although the majority of elementary school mathematics teachers would probably disagree with the implications of this word, many children leave the elementary school with little, if any, skill in estimation. A student teacher recently raised the inevitab le question when she said, “I can't find any source where it tells how to do it. What is it and what good is it?”
