SUBJECT: Science
GRADE: Sixth
TECHNOLOGY: Spreadsheet
BY: Katie Nelson

GRAPHING TEST DATA FROM FIELD TRIP

Objectives:
Students will analyze data gathered on the JASON Project field study.
Students will compare the ways in which the measurements gathered vary throughout the day and between different field sites.
Students will use graphs and spreadsheets to define the trends and relationships between data and to explore why the data are different.

Purpose:
After a fun and enriching experience like a field trip, it is necessary for teachers to emphasize the academic value of the field study. Students should understand the meaning behind the tests they completed and they gathered. It is difficult to impart this knowledge and understanding to students when they are actively participating in the field study, because of the excitement of the experience of the environment and activities. After the field trip, however; it is essential that teachers encourage students to compare the data gathered; thus forcing students to make meaningful analyses of the data and the relationships between data gathered at different times and places. This data analysis would be greatly enhanced by the use of student generated computer spreadsheets and graphs.

Materials:
Each student should have data taken from the field study and access to a computer with a spreadsheet program, the teacher should have a copy of all of the data taken at the field study

Introduction:
The teacher will ask students how they enjoyed the field trip. Ask the students what parts they liked best, what parts they least enjoyed, what they learned from the field trip, and what they learned from the data. Tell students to think about factors that may have influenced the data; these factors will be discussed at the end of the lesson.

Focus Content:
On a class data table, each class should compile data for each test so that each student has a copy of the data of every person in the class. Each student could recite his or her data for each test so that the class could record the information (students could be assigned numbers, and the name of the student could be written next to the number on the data table), or students could record their data on a class data table which all students could copy. Each student should have a complete listing of data for the pond site and the river site. The teacher should provide the class with the class averages for each of the two other classes for each site and test. This will allow students to compare their personal data with the data of the entire class, and the data of their class with the data of the other classes.

Activity:
Students should choose one test to study. The student must choose a test with variable, numerical results. Students may only choose to study one of the following tests: dissolved oxygen, sediment core, and relative density / specific gravity. Students will transfer data tables to spreadsheets. Students will create the following graphs to analyze the results of the field study for the one test they have chosen:
1. graph the data your class gathered at the pond site
2. graph the data your class gathered at the river site
2. make a graph that compares the data which your class gathered at the pond and river sites
3. make a graph that compares the averages for the three classes for the pond and river sites
Review the components of graphs with students. Graphs should have labels and units.

Technology procedure:
Some students may know more about spreadsheets than others. Some students may be able to complete this activity from scratch without any instruction on the computer. Other students may need to be given a completed spreadsheet with formulas included, so that they only have to fill in the data. Guide students through the entire process of filling in data and graphing with the water temperature of the pond for their class, so that they can duplicate the process for the remaining tests. Students who have little knowledge of computers should be paired with experienced spreadsheet users so that using the spreadsheet and comparing the scientific data are the main emphases of the activity.
Students should be given an order in which the tests should appear on their data table. Grading will be much easier if all data tables are similar. Students should have two data tables, one for the river and one for the pond. The tests should appear on the graph in this order: water temperature (degrees Celsius), air temperature (degrees Celsius), pH levels, turbidity (cm), dissolved oxygen, relative density / specific gravity, sediment core sample, number of types of animals, total number of animals. The tests should appear as column headings; student names should appear as row headings. Beneath the student names the following row headings should appear: first period’s class average, second period class average, third period class average, and the first period class average for the river (or the pond on the river table). The average for the class whose data appears on the data table should appear at the bottom of the table in the appropriate row (if the data cannot be numerically averaged the mode of the data should appear). The formula for average is =AVERAGE (B1..B5). In this example B1..B5 represent highlighted cells that are being averaged togetether. Students should determine the mode and insert the answer in the appropriate cells.

Conclusion:
Students should write a paragraph for the test which they analyze to explain the results of the data analysis. Students should suggest any factors that contribute to similarities or differences in the data across class periods (over time) or between the sites.
The class should discuss the student analysis of data. Were there similarities in students’ analysis of data? Did trends in the data arise? Were there great differences in the way in which the data was analyzed? What factors are attributed to these differences?

Evaluation:
spreadsheet data table, four graphs, a paragraph of data analysis, class discussion