I also just thought of another cool hook to your lesson: there is an easy way to estimate the circumference of the earth via a Fermi problem. (24 time zones * 1000 miles each) = 24000 mile circumference.

How far off are we? If we’re off by 1,000 miles is that really bad or not? What if we estimate the distance from D.C. to Seattle and we’re off by 1,000 miles? What if we estimate the distance from the earth to the Sun, and we’re off by 1,000 miles?

But that is a good point. We chose that word because it fits the medieval theme of the other words, in terms of guild training. I’m not sure of another word that could be substituted, but maybe just another theme could be used instead (maybe a Star Wars theme – http://misscalculate.blogspot.com/2012/07/sbg-holistic-rubric.html) or just revert to numbers.

I wonder if you’d consider a small suggestion. There is research showing that using words like journeyman, with a -man ending, affects us – we imagine males in those roles more. It’s such a cool word otherwise, and I don’t know another with the same flavor. Intern might be the same level, but it has a very different feel. I wonder if you could find a word that you like as well that doesn’t have the -man problem. (The online thesaurus only has artisan.)