SUBJECT: English
GRADE: High School
TECHNOLOGY: Spreadsheet
BY: Rebekah Allen
Excel"ing: an Exercise in Technical Reading and Application
Subject/Target Grade:
Although the content of this lesson, use of Excel spreadsheets, may be valuable for a variety of students in and beyond high school, the skill, technical reading and interpretation of printed consumer material, is appropriate for tenth grade English students. The rationale for teaching this lesson to tenth graders is obvious: the lesson meets objectives set forth in Virginia's Standards of Learning for students of tenth grade English. Virginia English SOL 10.4 states:
10.4 The student will read and interpret printed consumer materials.
* Identify essential information needed to operate specific tools, appliances, technology hardware, or other equipment.
* Analyze the information contained in warranties, contracts, job descriptions, and technical descriptions.
* Skim manuals or consumer texts to locate information.
* Apply the information contained in labels, warnings, manuals, directions, applications, and forms to complete simulated or real-world tasks.
So, why Excel? Why not teach students how to read technical manuals on gourmet cooking? Not only does the lesson meet the SOL, but it also equips students with the knowledge of a technological tool and a skill which will serve them across the curriculum and throughout their private and professional lives. It's practical--imagine that!
Moreover, this lesson can easily be adapted to the noted interests of tenth graders in different classrooms. The spreadsheet exercise could be easily based on a number of fictional frames: a car show, diving competitions, a band contest, etc. Tenth graders have reached a stage of independent thought (well, at least sometimes)—they often question why they are doing an assignment. This assignment has obvious “real-world” applications. In addition, the lesson also provides students an opportunity to work in groups which tenth graders seem to prefer.
Objectives:
TLW:
1. Identify essential information needed to operate Excel.
2. Analyze information contained in the technical description of Excel.
3. Apply the information contained in the Excel manual to create a spreadsheet that performs correct operations.
Materials:
1. Computer Lab (with Excel capability)
2. Excel user manuals (Excel for Windows 95 Simplified. Foster City: IDG books Worldwide, Inc., 1995.)—there is one available here in the LRC.
3. Handout
Description of Lesson:
Students will be divided into groups of three. Each group will be expected to work together to accomplish the task presented on the handout (see attached). To accomplish this task, students will need to use the Excel manual as a technical resource, a consumer material.
This lesson will probably take two to three 45 minute class periods. At the beginning and end of each class period, students will have five minutes to ask questions of their fellow classmates pertaining to the operation of Excel. However, at all other times, students should work within their grouping of three. The lesson, quite obviously, is student-centered and learning is student-directed. The manual, not the teacher, should be consulted as questions arise.
Evaluation Procedure:
Each group will submit a hardcopy of their spreadsheet and graphs. Students who present spreadsheets and graphs with correct data have quite obviously been successful at identifying essential information, analyzing that information, skimming a manual for pertinent material, and applying that material to the operation of the Excel spreadsheet to complete a real-world task. In short, they have demonstrated the skill of technical reading. Students will be given credit or no credit. They will have the opportunity to continue to resubmit the assignment until credit is earned; that is, until the spreadsheet and graph are correct.
Of course, as with all group-work, there exists the danger that one or two people will do all of the work for an entire group. Because the teacher is not directly involved in instruction during this lesson, the teacher has the freedom to observe the working habits of all members of the classroom and can readily assign participation grades.
SCRIPT:
Today you will be working in groups of three. Your group must meet the challenge presented below.
Objective: You will demonstrate your ability to read and apply technical literature (It's in the SOL's!).
Rationale: Life, both personal and professional, is full of technical reading and writing. Manuals, which tell us how to cook, how to change a headlamp in a car, how to wire a stereo, how to use a computer program, how to sew a shirt, or how to give a home perm (yikes!) abound. These manuals are considered technical writing and must be read and understood by you, the consumer. Today you will have the opportunity to use a manual for a computer program called Excel. As you demonstrate your ability to read and apply the information in the manual, you will also be learning a valuable skill: how to use spreadsheets. Most of you will have the opportunity to use this skill in college or in your profession. All of you can use this skill in your personal life--to balance your checkbook, for instance.
OK, here is the assignment. Read the following scenario in your group of three, follow the instructions, and submit your final products to me at the end of our third class period in the lab (you need only submit one copy per group).
Congratulations! You are fresh out college with a business degree and have just been hired by Coopers and Lybrand, an esteemed accounting firm. You expect to spend most of your 70 hour work week making coffee for your boss. You arrive Monday morning to find a copy of the Excel manual on your desk with the following note scrawled on a Post-it:
To all first-year employees:
Miss America Pageant this weekend. Coopers&Lybrand will monitor scoring. Set up a spreadsheet which will allow us to total scores of the ten contestants in each of the four categories and declare the final winner. There are five judges. Make sure you do it right...the world will be watching! (By the way, if you do a good job on the spreadsheet, we'll fly you to the contest with a senior partner to oversee the contest.)
How will you set up the spreadsheet? You know that there are ten contestants, seven judges, and four categories (swimsuit, evening wear, talent, and speaking. You will be dealing with sums--you will have to add the scores for each contestant in the four categories to get a total score. That score will determine the winner and the runners-up. Then you will have to figure out which score is the highest to declare the winner. ). You also know that you will be dealing with averages. You should average the scores of the judges in each category to check for consistency. Set up a spreadsheet which has a row for each contestant, and a column for each judges’ score within each category. You should leave columns total score at the end of all each category and at the end of all four categories for the final score. Chapters 1, 2, and 5 of the manual should be particularly helpful. Good luck.
Once you have completed this much, check with me (your boss) for feedback before you continue.
You should now have before you a spreadsheet with all contestants and all judges labeled in each category. You are now ready to enter the contestants scores (the data) into the appropriate cells. Use the following data:
Contestant 1:
Swimsuit: 8.4, 9.6, 7.2, 8.5, 8.0
Evening Wear: 7.9, 8.2, 6.4, 9.0, 9.2
Talent: 6.9, 4.5, 8.0, 6.3, 7.0
Speaking: 8.8, 8.7, 7.9, 9.0, 9.0
Contestant 2:
Swimsuit: 8.0, 6.7, 8.9, 9.6, 9.0
Evening Wear: 9.4, 9.3, 7.9, 7.9, 8.0
Talent: 9.9, 10.0, 9.8, 9.9, 8.9
Speaking: 8.9, 8.8, 8.7, 8.8, 9.0
Contestant 3:
Swimsuit: 9.7, 9.5, 9.9, 8.9, 9.9
Evening Wear: 9.9, 8.9, 9.9, 9.6, 9.1
Talent: 8.7, 8.3, 8.5, 8.8, 8.9
Speaking: 10.0, 9.9, 8.9, 9.3, 9.9
Contestant 4:
Swimsuit: 8.9, 8.7, 8.9, 9.0, 7.9
Evening Wear: 9.7, 5.4, 8.9, 9.0, 9.7
Talent: 8.9, 8.8, 9.0, 7.9, 9.9
Speaking: 4.5, 5.5, 7.5, 5.0, 6.0
Contestant 5:
Swimsuit: 9.9, 9.9, 9.9, 9.8, 10
Evening Wear: 8.9, 8.0, 8.7, 8.6, 9.0
Talent: 6.7, 7.9, 8.0, 7.7, 8.0
Speaking: 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.0, 9.3
Contestant 6:
Swimsuit: 9.0, 9.6, 8.9, 10.0, 10.0
Evening Wear:9.9, 8.9, 8.6, 9.5, 9.1
Talent:9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.1, 9.3
Speaking:9.0, 9.0, 10.0, 9.9, 8.9
Contestant 7:
Swimsuit: 8.8, 7.9, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3
Evening Wear:7.8, 7.9, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5
Talent:10.0, 9.9, 9.8, 10.0, 9.9
Speaking:10.0, 9.0, 9.0, 9.0, 9.1
Contestant 8:
Swimsuit: 7.8, 7.9, 7.5, 7.5, 7.6
Evening Wear:9.0, 9.7, 9.8, 9.1, 9.2
Talent:8.9, 8.9, 8.8, 8.7, 8.6
Speaking:8.8, 9.0, 8.6, 9.0, 8.8
Contestant 9:
Swimsuit: 10.0, 10.0, 9.9, 9.8, 10.0
Evening Wear: 8.4, 8.3, 8.7, 7.9, 8.0
Talent: 9.8, 9.9, 9.4, 9.3, 8.2
Speaking: 10.0, 9.2, 9.3, 8.8, 9.0
Contestant 10:
Swimsuit: 10.0, 10.0, 9.8, 9.8, 7.8
Evening Wear: 9.8, 9.8, 9.8, 9.7, 9.8
Talent: 10.0, 9.9, 9.8, 9.9, 7.6
Speaking: 8.9, 8.8, 8.7, 8.7, 7.0
Now that you have entered the following data, you need to set up the formulas to ensure that the spreadsheet performs the following operations:
Gives a total score for each contestant in each category (a sum of the judges’ scores).
Gives a final score for the ten contestants in all categories.
Indicates which score is the highest, second highest, and third highest.
Gives an average of each judge’s score in each category. (On average, which judge is giving the highest scores? Which judge is giving the lowest scores?)
Finally, plot the judges’ average scores for each category on a line graph. Which judges consistently rate high or rate low? Which vary from category to category?