Spreadsheet Warm Up for SSAC Geology of National Parks Modules, 2: Elementary Spreadsheet Manipulations and Graphing Tasks

Module by: Dorien McGee, Meghan Lindsay, Len Vacher, University of South Florida

Cover Page by: Len Vacher and Denise Davis, University of South Florida
This material is replicated on a number of sites as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service Project

Summary

SSACgnp.QA76.75.DKM1.3-Slide 01

This Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum activity continues the introduction to common and useful functions within Microsoft Excel. Students are offered the opportunity to create and modify spreadsheets and are guided through some of the conveniences of Excel. Students are also encouraged to think about the functions being executed by the spreadsheet in order to gain further understanding of computational methods. The intent of the module is to introduce the student to the capabilities of Excel.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number NSF DUE-0836566. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Learning Goals

SSACgnp.QA76.75.DKM1.3-Slide 03

Students will:

In the process the students will:

Context for Use

SSACgnp.QA76.75.DKM1.3-Slide 08
This module is designed for potential use in the Geology of National Parks service course at USF. The course is offered as an online course every semester. It includes readings from Parks and Plates, weekly quizzes based on that textbook, and weekly student activities designed to align the course with the University's general education requirements. This module is intended to be one of those activities, with the specific goal of meeting the gen-ed quantitative literacy dimension.

Description and Teaching Materials

SSACgnp.QA76.75.DKM1.3-Slide 03

The module is a PowerPoint presentation with embedded spreadsheets. Click on the link below to download a copy of the module.

Optimal results are achieved with Microsoft Office 2007 or later; the module will function in earlier versions with slight cosmetic compromises. If the embedded spreadsheets are not visible, save the PowerPoint file to disk and open it from there.

The above PowerPoint presentation file is the student version of the module. It includes a template for students to use to complete the spreadsheet(s) and answer the end-of-module questions, and then turn in for grading.

An instructor version is available by request. The instructor version includes the completed spreadsheet. Send your request to Len Vacher (vacher@usf.edu) by filling out and submitting the Instructor Module Request Form.

Teaching Notes and Tips

The module is constructed to be a stand-alone resource. It can be used as a homework assignment, lab activity, or as the basis of an interactive classroom activity. It was used as an out-of-class activity in a senior-elective course, Environmental Geology of the National Parks (for geology majors and nonmajors), during development of the module in Spring 2010, and as an out-of-class activity in Computational Geology (a QL course for geology majors) in Fall 2010 and Fall 2011. It has not been implemented yet in the introductory-level Geology of National Parks course.


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Assessment

There is a slide at the end of the presentation that contains end-of-module questions. The end-of-module questions can be used to examine student understanding and learning gains from the module. Pre/post test, pre/post test answer key, and answer key for end-of-module questions are at the end of the instructor version of the module.

References and Resources

Excel 2007 Tutorial - Sorting

Excel 2007 Tutorial - Charts & Graphs

Excel 2007 Tutorial - Overview

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