2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Motivation and Learning Objectives: Early-project teaming is a crucial stage in the engineering design process. In an academic setting, teaming presents an opportunity for students to develop key professional skills, such as peer communication, collaboration, and compromise. This abstract describes the use of Fermi problems, sometimes referred to as order-of-magnitude problems or broad estimation problems, as a vehicle for low stakes, early-project teaming. Fermi problems are mathematical questions posed to exercise estimation and dimensional analysis skills. For example, one of the classical Fermi problems asks, “How many piano tuners are in Chicago.” Due to the imprecise nature of problem-solving required, Fermi problems are typically evaluated on a logarithmic scale, requiring respondents to estimate answers to the closest power of 10 (e.g. the generally accepted answer to the piano tuners question is 2, or 10^2). In answering Fermi problems in a team setting, students are expected to discuss their basis of estimation, collaborate on how to combine their contributed estimations into a single answer, and compromise on estimates and methods. In doing so, they will see how their teammates communicate and disagree, as well as practice soliciting ideas from all team members. In reflecting on the exercise, students will also engage in metacognition regarding their team dynamics.

Implementation: This intervention was employed in a capstone design course immediately after teams and projects were assigned. The total course enrollment was 80 students, with teams ranging from 5 to 7 students (total of 13 teams). In this intervention, teams were given 40 minutes to answer the following 6 Fermi problems: (1) How many piano tuners are in Chicago? (2) How many pennies need to be stacked to reach the height of the Empire State Building? (3) In days, how long would it take the average reader to read every Wikipedia page? (4) How many leaves are on an average, fully-grown oak tree? (5) How many donkeys would it take to pull a Boeing 747 at its maximum takeoff weight? And (6) How many red blood cells would it take to cover the land area of Boulder County? To incentivize participation, the winning team was awarded treats from a local bakery. The assessment was graded by counting the cumulative number of orders of magnitude in error.

Feedback and Situational Factors: Following the activity, students were asked to reflect on their strategies and communication styles. From responses in a class-wide discussion, students found value in learning each other’s communication styles and problem-solving strategies. They also enjoyed the less serious nature of the questions, which allowed their first team assignment to begin on a positive note. In critical responses, students wished for clarity on the learning objectives at the start of the period. One student expressed a desire for the questions to be more focused on biomedical engineering. Situational factors enhancing the desired learning objectives were: (1) teams had just been formed, so there was increased “start-of-the-project” energy, and (2) many team members did not know each other, thus increasing the benefit of early-stage teaming. Factors limiting the desired learning objectives were: (1) the intervention occurred after an hour-long lecture, so some students were noticeably tired or unmotivated, and (2) the learning objectives were not made clear, so some students did not understand the point of the assignment.