Tasty Tech Activity
With Excel
Subjects
Grade
Brief Description
This lesson plan helps classroom teachers introduce basic Excel skills to students in elementary and middle school. Students rank their opinions of menu items from fast food restaurants, add their answers to the spreadsheet, and then create a simple graph of the results. This lesson takes 1-2 sessions, approximately 30-45 minutes each.
Objectives
Students will
Keywords
spreadsheet, data collection, data analysis, survey, fat food
Lesson Plan
Do your students need basic spreadsheet skills, but you aren't an expert with Excel? Never fear! This lesson plans breaks down the basic skills of inputting data and adding graphs so even users with the most basic skills can quickly gain confidence and competence with Excel. The lesson is best taught as a whole class in a lab, cart, or one-to-one setting, but can be modified for a classroom center of one to four computers.
Begin by explaining to students that they will learn how to create colorful graphs by adding data to a computer program called Excel. Have each student watch you as you open the TastyTech template. Demonstrate to students the following three steps:
Have students open the TastyTech template on their own computers (Be sure to put the file on students' computers beforehand, or show them how to access it on the school's network if that's an option). Call on each student individually, and have students call out their evaluations (3, 2, or 1) for each food. The rest of the class then types each student's name and score for each food on their own worksheets. Walk around to make sure students are putting the information in the correct cells and that no student is behind.
When the spreadsheets are complete, have students save and print their work. Next, walk students through the four easy steps of creating a graph of their work. Have them click Insert > Chart at the top of the screen and then
Each student now should see a graph of the fast food survey results. Students can print the graphs for class work credit.
Assessment
Students will be assessed on
Lesson Plan Source
Education World
Submitted By
Lorrie Jackson
National Standards
MATHEMATICS: Number and Operations
GRADES 3 - 5
NM-NUM.3-5.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems
MATHEMATICS: Measurement
GRADES 3 - 5
NM-MEA.3-5.1 Understand Measurable Attributes of Objects and the Units, Systems, and Processes of Measurement
MATHEMATICS: Representation
GRADES Pre-K - 12
NM-REP.PK-12.1 Create and Use Representations to Organize, Record, and Communicate Mathematical Ideas
TECHNOLOGY
GRADES K - 12
NT.K-12.1 Basic Operations and Concepts
NT.K-12.3 Technology