Spreadsheet - A Variety of Activities!

Uses of Spreadsheet. We have found quite a lot of interesting things to do in spreadsheet for our grades three through five students, and all of them are better managed in a lab setting. The simplier projects listed below certainly can be done in the classroom, but two of the projects, "Not So Simple Graphing" and "Probability Experiment" would be considered impossible for a classroom setting. "Timelines," "Simple Graphs," and "Interview Forms" can be done in a classroom, but would take months to complete. The "Civil War" graphing would be boring in a classroom becuase the students would loose the sense of discovery when watching someone else type in the data or do the charts. They would all be extremely difficult to teach in a classroom setting because kids would not be able to learn the new concepts hands on, but probably in a "view the projection" mode. "Timelines" and "Simple Graphs" have taken our students an average of 1 1/2 hours or 2 computer labs. The "Civil War" activity took one period for each class with all students doing the work simultaneously. Here are the topics we have done and some sample projects. The step by step procedures are for use with Microsoft Excel in Office 97.