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Excel for Teachers

Printable Version

Authors

Ann Howden
Victoria Rasmussen

Summary

Designed for those who are unfamiliar with spreadsheet programs, this class covers basic Excel functionality, including simple math formulas, formatting and the chart wizard. We focus on classroom projects and applications, especially activities your students can do with Excel. The course aims to provide a sufficient foundation in Excel, so that participants feel comfortable showing students how to use it, and assigning projects that use Excel as a tool to help students develop critical thinking skills and enhance their learning of curriculum standards.


Materials

Attachments

  • Blooms_levels-MI_handout.xls
    Excel spreadsheet with a worksheet for Bloom's Taxonomy Review, and a worksheet for the Multiple Intelligences Review.
  • Excel_Examples.doc
    Directions and suggestions for Excel problems and applications in your classroom. (Word document)
  • Excel_Guide.doc
    Primary handout for course with some general directions and some step-by-step directions for using Excel.
  • Excel_Quiz.doc
    Word document Excel Quiz given at the end of class.
  • Group_Work_Problems06.doc
    Directions for four "story problems" requiring Internet research and spreadsheet creation from the data.
  • wingdings_font_key.xls
    Table showing the keystroke and symbol it produces in the Wingding font. (Use this to generate the smiley/frowny faces in the "self-test" example.)

Websites

  • Bloom's Taxonomy
    This site covers the basics of Bloom's Taxonomy and gives some useful ways to implement the strategy in your teaching.
  • Gigglepotz - Teacher Resources
    This has a list that briefly summarizes seven multiple intelligences. This is the page I printed as a handout.
  • Interactive Excel
    Downloadable spreadsheet files for use in classes. (Mostly science-based curriculum)
  • Microsoft Education
    From this main page, click Product Tutorials, Lesson Plans or Tools for Teachers, then search by product (Excel) and subject or grade level.

Below are attached the manual/guide and other handouts distributed in class. Note that each of the four documents is available as a MS Word (.doc) file or in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format.


Assessment Plan

Assignment

Create a student project that involves your students in the use of Excel. Create a sample product (what you expect your students to produce upon completion of the project). In one page or less, describe how you would include this project in your curriculum, and what curriculum objective it would help students to learn.


Created: 12/30/2003
Updated: 02/05/2018
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