Tools
Create
a Graph - a graphing tool from NCES that allows students to enter data
and create simple line, bar, area, and pie charts.
What Are Your Chances - a dice rolling simulation from NCES that teaches probability concepts.
BBC Interpreting Data Activity - an interactive activity that teaches about interpreting data.
BBC Data Picking Activity - an interactive activity that teaches students how to create a frequency table and create a chart.
NCTM Spreadsheet Tool - an interactive math applet of a spreadsheet.
NCTM
Spreadsheet and Graphing Tool - an interactive math applet that combines
the features of a spreadsheet with a graphing calculator.
Almost Everything you Need to Know for Using Spreadsheets in the Classroom - the first section provides excellent color posters and teaching materials for beginning spreadsheet activities. Be sure to check out the Spreadsheet Diagram as a great tool for teaching the parts of a spreadsheet.
Spreadsheets - Kenosha Unified School District has a PDF file with a wonderful 49 page introduction to spreadsheets with benchmarks, worksheets, and activities.
Microsoft Excel Tutorials - tutorials, lesson plans, and resources from Microsoft about using Excel.
Classrooms that Excel Resources - provides links to Excel guides, tutorials, applications and lesson plans.
Learning Microsoft Excel - the The Land Grant Training Alliance provides detailed instructions with screen shots about using Excel.
Spreadsheet Basics - an introduction to spreadsheets with links to graphing.
Microsoft
Excel for Teachers Part II - gives step by step directions on how to
create a chart/graph and how to insert it into Microsoft Word.
Charts and Graphs: Showing statistical data visually - gives an overview about misrepresentation in charts.
Graphing Savvy: Giving Students a Sense of Mathematical Power - an article about how changing the scaling unit changes the appearance of graph data. The site gives ideas of ways to have students discover this for themselves.
Tables and Graphs - provides information and quizzes about tables, bar graphs, columns graphs, line graphs, and pie/circle graphs.
Using Charts - gives ideas of things to consider when using graphs to communicate information.
Describing Data with Charts and Graphs - lists the nine common graphs in Excel and shows examples of when to use them.
Kids USA Survey - provides graphs and survey results from students.
Elementary Sites
To
Excel is Elementary - a great site with an ABC list of activities,
graphing ideas, classroom strategies for using spreadsheets with ideas,
and more.
Group Graphing - presents ideas and examples for using spreadsheets in the elementary classroom with links for students to gather data.
PBS Mathline Data Analysis - a variety of links to exercises and activities for students in grades 3-5 that deal with data analysis and using spreadsheets.
PBS Mathline Estimation and Graphing - a variety of links to exercises and activities for students in grades K-2 that deal with estimation and graphing.
PBS Mathline Spreadsheet Activity 1 - an activity for students in grades 4-8 about a using a spreadsheet for doing "what if" calculations for expenses and profits at a car wash.
Graphs Art and Math Lesson Plan - an activity where students make graphs using construction paper. Many teacher believe students should have to create a graph first before the computer creates one for them to fully understand what is happening and this would be a good hands-on graph activity.
Spreadsheets: Websites to Support the Teaching of Spreadsheets - a variety of links with spreadsheet examples and downloads.
Spreadsheet Lessons from Pattie Elementary School - provides information about using spreadsheets in the elementary level with activities and ideas.
Middle School Sites
Computer
Skill Lesson Plans: Spreadsheets - North Carolina Public Schools shares
spreadsheet lessons.
Bouncing Tennis Balls - students will develop their collecting and recording data skills using a bouncing tennis ball. They will use the data collected to formulate the relationship between the dependent and independent variable in their experiment.
PBS Mathline Data Analysis - a variety of links to exercises and activities for students in grades 3-5 that deal with data analysis and using spreadsheets.
PBS Mathline Spreadsheet Activity 1 - an activity for students in grades 4-8 about a using a spreadsheet for doing "what if" calculations for expenses and profits at a car wash.
Spreadsheets: Websites to Support the Teaching of Spreadsheets - a variety of links with spreadsheet examples to download.
High School Sites
Algebraic
Problem Solving Using Spreadsheets: - a four day unit to have 9th graders
learn and use spreadsheets to solve algebraic problems.
PBS Mathline Data Analysis - a variety of links to exercises and activities for students in grades 3-5 that deal with data analysis and using spreadsheets.
Investigating Functions Using Spreadsheets - students work with a variety of functions, altering parameters and observing the changes in the numerical data and in the graphical representation and asked to analyze the results, and to form conclusions about functions in general.
Linear Transformations Using Spreadsheets - this unit investigates the effect of a variety of linear transformations on a unit square and a rectangle. Students record their observations in a table and conjecture relationships between characteristics of the transformation matrix and the shape, orientation and area of the image.
Spreadsheets: Websites to Support the Teaching of Spreadsheets - a variety of links with spreadsheet examples and downloads.
Using Graphs, Equations, and Tables to Investigate the Elimination of Medicine from the Body: Graphing the Situation - a three-part example illustrates the use of iteration, recursion, and algebra to model and analyze the changing amount of medicine in an athlete's body. This example is adapted from High School Mathematics at Work.
Real Time Data Sources
U.S. Census Bureau
National Center for Health Statistics
National Oceanographic Data Center
Practice Activities
Arizona County Activity Fill In