The concept of significant figures can often be very confusing when students encounter it for the first time. Rather than having students memorize a list of rules, providing exercises and demonstrations involving students as active learners is preferable. Several such examples are described. Starting with measurement of length with a ruler, the instructor can talk about how precisely (closely) the measuring device is calibrated. The recording of plus and minus values, along with the measurement, is a good way to ease into significant figures. The implied relative uncertainty concept is then developed and finally more advanced concepts, such as the cumulation of errors (uncertainties) in calculations based on two or more measurements, are described. A survey of the literature, involving other helpful related concepts, is also included.
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