Mehr als Rechnen für die Umwelt

Fermi-Aufgaben zur nachhaltigen Entwicklung in der Primarstufe

Abstract

“How high would a tower made of all the pupils of your school be if the children stood on each other’s shoulders?” Questions of this kind are called Fermi questions and are often already used in primary school. In this way, various mathematical competences can be promoted in pupils, as pure operating is not sufficient to answer them. 

Within the framework of our project, we are developing Fermi questions for environmental education for science teaching in the primary level with support materials for teachers. These tasks, which have a meaningful connection to the pupils’ lifeworld and focus on topics of sustainable development, should not only impart knowledge, but also lead to reflective action. 

The potential of these tasks for the primary level, how they can be implemented in the classroom and what contribution they can make to environmental education in science teaching is the subject of this article.