« Group 4

Welcome to Digging Into Data  

Hi Everyone,
Welcome! We hope that you have had a smooth start to this school year. Since we last met, we have continued to grow our Web site. You will find many new resources in the Investigation Resources section. If you have yet to locate the data you need for your first activity, you may want to browse through the new resources that have been added. Also, please do not hesitate to send "SOS" messages. That is, on Monday and Tuesday, it is perfectly fine to make posts such as, "Help! I'm looking for data that shows total dissolved solids in well water in Massachusetts! Does anyone know where I can I find this?" Your colleagues and the DataTools staff will do all they can to assist you in the process of finding and formatting the data you need.
Nick and Carla will be facilitating the group discussion areas each day. However, all of the DataTools project staff will also be in and out of all four of the discussion areas to answer questions as needed.
We look forward to "seeing" you online.
Thanks,---Carla & Nick

268:996

Share edittextuser=31 post_id=996 initial_post_id=0 thread_id=268

This post was edited by Kit Pavlekovsky on Aug, 2012
I have been working on how to teach my classes to use excell to perform some basic functions and then do some graphing to answer a couple simple questions.

The data I am using is actually collected in class by having students shout different words into a SPL meter and recording the meter setting and the level indicated.

(This was done outside and was a very good icebreaker during the first week of school.

The data is posted on my web site on my handouts page

teacherweb.com/MA/FrederickWHartnettMiddleSchool/MrKalmbach-7thGradeMath/photo7.stm

I have the raw data posted for one class and my sample analysis.

Still need to work on the directions, but in general they are learn to
- add columns
- format data
- use the sum and average and median functions in a column
- the same in a row.
- learn to fill down
- learn to make bar graphs
- use the tool to answer the question - Who is louder, boys or girls.

This is done over the course of a 3 weeks and it is part of my long range plan to get them to the point where they can address the MCAS factors problem that I presented at TERC this summer. I plan to also use the "Is Pluto a planet" lesson from Nick as an excercise.

Let me know what you think.

268:998

Share edittextuser=707 post_id=998 initial_post_id=0 thread_id=268

That sounds pretty neat, Arnold.

Have the students started working with Excel yet?

Becky

268:1000

Share edittextuser=704 post_id=1000 initial_post_id=0 thread_id=268

Yes they have, we have been doing a bit at a time.

I find that doing the graph stuff is easy for them, but the functions are harder.

It is pretty cool having some students who are good at this (they just seem to get the flow of how to do it and letting them become the leaders and experts in teaching others.

I am doing this without any detail written directions, mostly going through it by example and then having them repeat the steps in the lab.

I am beginning to wonder about retention though. I hope that I can do a number of things like this through the year so it won't be all new to them when they see it again.

Z-YA;

Arnold

268:1003

Share edittextuser=707 post_id=1003 initial_post_id=0 thread_id=268

Hi Arnold,

That does sound like a cool way to get working on excel. I don't have any formal plan for the group to review yet, but am planning a continuation of our work in the summer with the MASS GIS data. In my social studies class, we have been working with mapping, so I thought it would be cool to start to compare their town to other towns in MA. After playing with the ArcVoyager program a bit, I want them to access the data table. They will choose different towns to compare to theirs, and transfer area and population data to an excel spread sheet. My sixth grade students don't really know how to use excel, so I thought this would be a nice introduction. Also, I want to use the spreadsheet to calculate population density, which can then be used throughout the year while studying geography.

I have not taught rhe use of spreadsheets before, so any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.

268:1010

Share edittextuser=709 post_id=1010 initial_post_id=0 thread_id=268

I am finding the first thing to teach is the discipline of saving early and often. I hammer at them to save the file at each step along the way - and believe me it pays off.

Then start by making sure that they recoginze the each cell has an address given by row and column. This is key for later use in formulas and gives a common way to talk about the information.

I found that letting them "play" with entering data and formating was a good way to get them into the tool. They are very adept at colors and backgrounds and it does add to the interpretation of the data.


I would focus on doing multiple reps of a single graph type (bar chart seems to be the easiest for them)once they get past the data format and entry.

Don't know if this helps, but it is at least one man's observations.

Z-YA;

Arnold

268:1025

Share edittextuser=707 post_id=1025 initial_post_id=0 thread_id=268

Join the Discussion


Log in to reply

« Group 4