The Teaching Quantitative Skills in the Geosciences website has not been significantly updated since 2011. We are preserving the web pages here because they still contain useful ideas and content. But be aware that the site may have out of date information.
You can find more recent and extensive resources on the Teach the Earth website.

How to Use Excel

Initial Publication Date: December 21, 2006

Microsoft Excel is easy to use and has very many features so the more you use it the more you learn. The Excel spreadsheet has great documentation through the built-in help menu.

We also have a collection of Example Excel Activities that show how Excel can be used in class. There are introductory activities that focus more on the mechanics of using Excel in science context as well as more advanced activities which assume more knowledge of Excel and use it as a tool to explore more in-depth concepts.

Other Useful References