Better roughly right than precisely wrong: Fermi problems in biology curricula

Abstract

At a time in which humanity's entire knowledge base is-quite literally-at everyone's fingertips, educators must encourage creative problem-solving and critical thinking over memorization of facts more than ever. Fermi problems are a type of question in which students use logical reasoning and rough assumptions to arrive at an answer that is roughly correct-usually within a factor of ten. The emphasis of Fermi-type questions is on breaking down a complex question for which the "correct" answer likely cannot be determined into simpler parts, making reasonable guesses, and justifying one's assumptions rather than finding an exact value. In this article, I describe how to integrate Fermi problems into biology curricula at high school, college, and graduate levels and how to teach students to approach challenging, fascinating, and absurd questions.