Spreadsheets
This content assumes you’ve read:
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Beyond Show and Tell - Mary Burns. Learning and Leading With Technology
2003 Vol. 31 No. 2
You should also be familiar with Excel to fully understand this lesson. The following
tutorials will ensure you’re up to speed:
Be sure your speakers are turned on when viewing the tutorials below:
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Getting To Know Excel 2007 - Creating Your First Workbook
Getting To Know Excel 2007: Enter Formulas
Charts 1: How to Create a Chart in Excel 2007
There are additional Microsoft tutorials available if you feel you need further training. If
you find the Microsoft tutorials hard to follow, there are other options such as the
Microsoft Excel 2007 Tutorial by the Baycon Group at Walden University. Using your
advanced search skills, you could easily find others by using the Find Similar Pages
option on Google's Advanced Search page.
For those intending to teach middle or high school math, the two articles below describe
specific lesson ideas based on Excel:
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Real-World Ratios - William Samrall. Learning & Leading with Technology 2003
Vol. 31 No. 3
Scaffolding Math Learning with Spreadsheets - Margaret Niess. Learning &
Leading with Technology 2005 Vol. 32 No. 5
Spreadsheets
Why do we use charts and graphs? Well ask yourself, which
gives you a clearer picture of what the shoe styles data is
telling you, the table or the graph? The graph gives you a
quick picture of what's going on with the data. So when we
ask, "What shoe style do most students wear?" students can
easily pick the sneaker as the most common shoe style by
glancing at the graph.
Excel is generally the software program within Microsoft Office teachers are least
familiar with. I'll admit, using many of the advanced features in Excel can be quite
daunting, but creating simple spreadsheets such as the shoe styles graph is pretty quick
and simple. And as Mary Burns stated in Beyond Show and Tell, spreadsheets can be a
wonderful tool for getting kids thinking at higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy because
spreadsheets support asking and answering questions.
Using data to generate and answer questions is a basic mathematical competency, so
it's no surprise the Data Analysis and Probability strand of the NM Mathematics
Standards for K-4 includes such things as:
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collect data using tally marks, observations or polls
create and interpret what bar graphs, Venn diagrams, charts, tables, line graphs
and pictographs show
use data analysis to make reasonable inferences or predictions and to develop
convincing arguments from data
determine whether or not the data gathered helps answer the specific question
that was posed
Look at the shoe graph and consider how it reflects these K-4 standards. Kids ask the
question: what style shoe is the most popular? They collect data using tally marks, then
create a graph to display their findings and answer their question. More effective
teachers would check for understanding of what the graph represents by asking specific
questions (remember the criteria for effective formative assessment?) then extend the
lesson by asking a series of additional questions requiring high-level thinking to answer:
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What shoe style is most popular?
Order the shoe styles from most popular to least popular.
How many more people have sandals than dress shoes?
How many people have either sneakers or sandals?
How would the graph look different if five more people had dress shoes?
How would the graph look different if there were another category, slip-ons, and
three people had those?
Do you think the graph would look different if we surveyed the teachers at our
school? How do you think it would look different? Why do you think that?
How else could we group our shoes? What other questions could we ask? (What
color shoe is most popular. What's the most common closure, laces, velcro,
buckles or slip-ons?)
Notice the question, "Do you understand?" isn't on the list? Recall from our discussion
on assessment that such general questions are a waste
Web 2.0 Graphing Tools
of time and do little to reveal if kids are following the
lesson successfully. These questions are specific - if kids
You may find a need for an
answer them correctly, the teacher would know they
alternative to Excel, especially if
understand the instruction.
you're working with younger
As you would expect, the standards for grades 5 - 8
extend the skills even further. In grades 9 - 12, these
skills are represented to some degree in the math
standards, but are far more applicable in social studies
where data analysis represents a critical skill. Meeting
these standards is best accomplished using some form of
spreadsheet, and the one most commonly available is
Excel, but it's not the only game in town. There are
various online Web 2.0 options as well (see sidebar).
students, or you don't have
access to Excel. This is where
Web 2.0 free online tools can
come in handy.
There are many free tools you
can use in the classroom,
including Kids' Zone Create a
Graph, and EditGrid, designed to
enable the creation of
spreadsheets in a collaborative
online environment.
Now, I want to focus on the teaching side of spreadsheets rather than the nuts and bolts
of using them.
Customizing Graph Colors
Excel in the Classroom
During the last two
weeks we've talked
about creating student
support materials to
scaffold learning. Excel
is a powerful tool to do
just that. Here's an
example: Favorite
Color of the Rainbow.
This lesson teaches language arts in the form of color
words, science information about rainbows, and math
concepts about graphing. Let's look at the ways it does
that, as well as how technology contributes to the
learning.
Did you notice how the graph colors
matched the color words - the red
column was really red. Changing
graph colors is easy. Here's a video
showing how: Customizing Graph
Colors
Making Magically Growing
Graphs
Excel needs data in the data table
to create a graph. If you wanted to
have the graph grow magically as
data is entered, set up the data
table, add some dummy data, use
that dummy data to create a graph,
and then delete the dummy data.
Now you have a graph with nothing
showing. As the real data is entered
into the data table, the graph will
now grow.
Tips for Using StudentGenerated Questions
Rainbow Lesson: Language Arts
The basic rainbow colors (red, orange, yellow, green,
blue and purple) are covered in the Excel graphing part
of the lesson (see sidebar). Language arts learning
could be extended by creating a word wall full of color
words such as magenta, vermillion, and scarlet. Twoword phrases used to describe colors could be included:
sky blue, cherry red or lime green. A PowerPoint of
colorful images could be used to prompt kids to come
up with such color words or teach them words they don't
know. These images would make the lesson more
concrete - remember, making instruction concrete
should be a constant goal!
In my experience, I've found some
student generated questions are
excellent, and others no so good
due to the clarity of writing.
Focusing on this allows you to
integrate writing skills into the
lesson. If you want to include
student-generated questions, here
are some tips:
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Rainbow Lesson: Science
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Images presented with PowerPoint could be used to
teach science content about what causes rainbows. A
series of pictures could be shown and students asked to
describe the weather they see in each. The teacher
would guide students to recognize that every picture
includes clouds, rain and sunlight through a Socratic
dialog:
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Describe what you see in this picture (looking at
rainbow image 1 - rainbow, clouds, rain, sunlight
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Talk about what makes for
a good question as
opposed to a not so good
question and identify
specific criteria. Share
examples of good and
poor questions to support
students in identifying
those criteria.
Have students create
questions and the
accompanying answer that
fit the good question
criteria.
Print out the questions and
the author's name and
hand out the questions as
an assignment. If students
get stuck on a question,
they approach the author
for help rather than the
teacher.
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and any other things)
What do you see in this picture (looking at rainbow image 2 - rainbow, clouds,
rain, sunlight and any other things)
What things are the same about the images (looking at a slide that has both
image 1 and 2 on it - rainbow, clouds, rain and sunlight)
Do you see those same things, a rainbow, clouds, rain and sunlight, in this
picture (looking at rainbow image 3)
If we looked at another rainbow image, what do you think we might see (rainbow,
clouds, rain and sunlight; then show rainbow image 4)
Was your guess correct? Do we see clouds, rain and sunlight along with the
rainbow? (yes)
Do you think there's a connection between clouds and rain? Can you describe
the connection? (yes - rain comes from clouds so you have to have clouds to
have rain)
Do you think there's a connection between rain, sunlight and rainbows? What do
you think that connection might be?
This Socratic dialog teaches, rather than tells, the conditions required to produce a
rainbow. Then the teacher could tell kids that raindrops act like little prisms before
sharing a prism in class and using it to create the colors of the rainbow in the classroom.
This part of the lesson is also concrete. Images of rainbows are used to guide student
awareness while a real prism is used to make a real rainbow.
Rainbow Lesson: Math
The Favorite Color of the Rainbow graph, obviously, teaches math concepts: reading
and understanding graphs. The teacher would want to ask a series of questions
concerning the graph to ensure students read it accurately and understood what it
represented:
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How many people liked red?
How many people liked red or yellow?
How many more people liked orange than liked green?
How many people in all shared their favorite color?
How many fewer people liked blue than liked orange?
I said above that this lesson was interactive. What did I mean by that? Excel links the
graph dynamically to the dataset, meaning that as the dataset changes, the graph
changes automatically to reflect that change. This allows you to ask high-level questions
such as: how would the graph look different if three more people chose blue as their
favorite color? Kids would describe how it would look, then the teacher could add a 3 in
the blue column, press the enter key and presto, kids could see if their prediction was
correct.
Here's another great way to make use of Excel's interactivity. If the teacher sets up the
workbook and creates the graph ahead of time, then when kids enter the number 1 for
their favorite color, the graph will grow in front of their eyes like magic! Try it and see.
Each kid has a row for their name and the number 1 in one of the columns representing
their favorite color. Highlight all the 1's and delete them. The graph is still there, but no
columns show. Now start adding 1's back into the data table and watch what happens.
Cool, huh? Don't you think that would get student's attention (see sidebar)?
Lots of nifty learning taking place from a simple little Excel spreadsheet, huh?
Technology wasn't the focus of the lesson, but look at how technology mediated much of
the learning. Technology provided tools to make the lesson more real, concrete and
interactive.
Student-Generated Questions
In the rainbow lesson, the teacher asked specific questions at both low and high levels
as formative assessment to determine if students understood the graph and the data
behind it. But why should the teacher do all the work? In the article Group Graphing, the
author suggests having kids make up questions about the graph to ask each other. He
points out that student questions are often more challenging than those created by
teachers, but recommends letting kids know they must be able to answer their own
question before it can be used with the class (see sidebar).
Project AIMS: Supporting Spreadsheets in the Classroom
There are many resources for
using spreadsheets in the
classroom. One of my favorites is
the materials published by AIMS
which integrate math and science
(see sidebar). Math competency
is a skill and drilling on skills
repetitively gets boring quickly.
What student wants to spend countless hours
practicing math just to do well on standardized tests?
AIMS
AIMS has dozens of books
integrating math and science for
kindergarten through eighth grade.
Many are organized around themes
such as seasons or things that fly.
The AIMS website offers a variety of
sample lessons for free - that's a
resource you might want to keep in
mind when you start student
teaching. If you wanted to spring for
one of the books, you'd have a set
of high quality, hands-on lessons
that would make you a hit with
students while impressing your
master teacher!
But when used as a tool in a motivating, hands-on
investigation, math becomes relevant and meaningful.
By Golly By Gum from Jaw Breakers and Heart
Thumpers is an engaging science activity that uses mathematics as a tool to help in
answering the question, What percentage of the weight of bubble gum is sugar and
flavorings? Read through the activity and see what aspects of its design reflect the
effective instructional practices we've covered in this course. When you're finished, we'll
talk about it.
So, what did you think? Did you notice the instructional objectives tied to a variety of
math standards including those from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
(NCTM)? Did you notice the list of science process skills students would engage in
during the investigation? If you've taken science methods already, I'm sure you picked
up on those.
As a teacher, would you appreciate having the underlying science principles clearly
explained as was done in the Background section? Would you appreciate having the tips
and suggestions for implementing the activity effectively in the Management section?
Did you notice the step-by-step procedure for conducting the activity? How about the list
of questions to focus student attention and guide understanding in the Connecting
Learning section?
Did you notice kids are guided through the steps of the scientific process: generate a
question; develop a hypothesis; follow a valid procedure; collect data; analyze the data
to address the question and explain the results; generate additional questions? And
finally, did you notice the data collection table would work perfectly as an Excel
spreadsheet?
Do you think students would be intrigued by the question What percent of the weight of
bubblegum is sugar and flavorings? Do you think they would be motivated by this handson activity to use mathematics as a tool to answer the question? Do you think this
represents an appropriate integration of "fun" into standards-based learning?
Clearly, AIMS materials reflect many of the principles of effective instruction covered in
this class - that's why I recommend them so highly! Another great thing about AIMS
materials is they're available in Spanish. And in case you were curious, bubblegum is
about 75% sugar and flavorings. No wonder dentists and mothers, not to mention school
custodians, hate the stuff!
Online Data Sets
Our world is filled with data on every conceivable topic making the opportunities for
using spreadsheets almost unlimited. For example, here's a spreadsheet with data about
the 50 States. What sorts of questions could be asked based on these data? The
answer is only limited by your imagination and could support lessons based on
mathematics, social studies, or language arts.
Using advanced search skills you could uncover all sorts of online data sets. As students
are always motivated by mayhem, a Google search for crime statistics turns up such
options as FBI Uniform Crime Reports.
Here are some other online data sets:
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U.S. Statistical Abstract - U.S. Census Bureau statistics
CIA Factbook
Poodwaddle World Clock
State Population & Electoral Appointments
I hope you’re recognizing the incredible possibilities spreadsheets bring to the
classroom! To me, spreadsheets are one of the best uses of technology, as they support
all kinds of active investigations and hands-on learning activities and can be related to
learning in any content area.
Ideas For Using Spreadsheets in the Classroom
This week's reading, Beyond Show and Tell by Mary Burns, described some great ideas
for supporting instruction with Excel. Explore the links below for more ideas on
integrating Excel into instruction:
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Microsoft Education - in the search window, select Excel as the product defined
lessons using spreadsheets.
Integrating Spreadsheets in the Classroom - Amphitheater Public Schools,
Tucson, Arizona
Excel Activities for the Classroom - North Canton City Schools, Canton, Ohio
EXEL-lent Middle School Math Lessons! -Education World
Almost Everything You Need for Using Spreadsheets in the Classroom - NC
WiseOwl
Excel - Lee's Summit School District, Missouri