Interviews

My lesson plan involves using excel for interviews. This would be ideal at the middle school or high school level when students will have to interview individuals on various topics for projects/assignments. This lesson utilizes the "worksheet" capability of a spreadsheet which allows you to organize your work better than a word processor. This is a good activity to use when students have to interview numerous people about numerous questions. By doing this on excel, students can see all the interviews quickly and efficiently. I remember a project I had to do in my 8th grade social studies class in which I had to interview five people all from different decades. I had to ask them all the same questions. This lesson plan would be perfect for that project!

Here is the link: http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow4/may99/ss-interview.html

Countdown Spreadsheet

I found an interesting way to use Excel for a fun project. You can make a countdown spreadsheet to count down days until important events such as birthdays, graduations, projects, events, etc. I found this from http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110054/ and it even gives you a template already made on this page. You use functions like TODAY, and simple subtraction formulas to count down the days! :)

Lemonade Stand

http://www.microsoft.com/education/makingmoney.mspx

This lesson plan is aimed towards older elementary school students or middle school students. It is supposed to allow the student to calculate the amount of profit being made from selling lemonade. I like this lesson plan because it does allow for the teacher to have some freedom. The students could choose their own item to sell rather than them all selling lemonade or depending on what the class is discussing the teacher can assign something else to sell. The plan calls for this to be a multiple day activity but the teacher could set it up to be a one day activity if there isn't enough time.

Water Down the Drain

How much water do you use in a day?

I found a wonderful resource that used Excel as a graph for a lesson for middle and high school students in science and math. On one Saturday the entire class or school would track how much water was used by the family, and then try to find ways to reduce that usage. The webpage link is http://www.microsoft.com/education/wateruse.mspx . It has the links for the questionnaire, the Excel chart (complete with directions printed on it, places to answer questions, and plot the data already set for you), and Publisher. Once the class finished their personal charts, they could combine it for the class average, or even the school average. It has many opportunities to use this application. I am not quite sure if the directions will be printed in the box below the chart. If not check online for your very own copy.

Saturday Water Usage by the ________________ family.
	# per Saturday	Gallons	# of minutes	Total # of Gallons Used
Baths		50		0.00
Showers		2	15	0.00
Teeth Brushing		1		0.00
Hand and Face Washing		1		0.00
Shaving		1		0.00
Dishwasher		20		0.00
Dishwashing by hand		5		0.00
Laundry (Machine)		10		0.00
Toilet Flushes		3		0.00
Glasses of Water		0.0625		0.00
Total Gallons Used				0.00
# of family members	1
Gallons per family member	0

Roadtrip across North Carolina: 4th grade

http://www.microsoft.com/education/roadtrip.mspx

I love this lesson because it uses multiple microsoft programs and can be turned into a project, group work, or individual work. I plan on teaching elementary school so this would be ideal for fourth grade when students learn about north carolina and state history. I could have some students do this lesson as if they were in the present and some as if they were in the past. This way we could compare what our roadtrips would be like in modern day North Carolina and historic North Carolina. Instead of using microsoft word for all of the lists i would use excel because i believe it will help students be more organized and have their material easier to read. I will do some manipulating of the lesson to make it more fourth grade friendly since it is originally created for middle school, and i will make it more specific to state history, and historic spots across our state.

Calculate your carbon footprint

In this lesson, small groups of students work together to collect data and to calculate their carbon footprint using the Excel Web App. Their data is averaged and applied to the population of the country in which they live to demonstrate a practical application of exponential growth and sustainability. Each group will then collaborate on a report using the Word Web App to discuss their findings and to present solutions for improving their carbon footprint.

http://www.microsoft.com/education/lessonplans/carbon_footprint.mspx#EZG

Students could keep a weekly track using Excel to see how much electricity and water they use and how much waste they throw out. Then they would compare it to the population. It would not only teach them how to use Excel but also teach them how to be more sustainable.

Play 60!

Excel is a great way to document. Keep a timeline of progress, while developing good habits and maintaining a healthy schedule. I have always thought teachers should emphasize the importance of exercising or "playing." This is for all ages, and can be incorporated by having an activity to enhance their playing. Have students pledge to making sure they Play 60 minutes everyday. Have 5 or 10 minutes at the beginning of class every Friday to have play in the classroom, maybe a game like "silent ball" or if you have courtyard space than have organized games like tag and capture the flag. Anything is better than nothing, but if the class really gets in to it than it will be easy to come up with ideas for fun games. Unorganized play is key as well. Playing with them helps. Offer time for them to play, maybe ask if kids would like to play more at lunchtime or before school, and be a supervisor of the "play".
Here is the website that gave me the idea. I see the commercial for it on ESPN all the time and think it is a great idea for getting kids excited about playing and exercising!
http://www.nflrush.com/play60/
Have a chart in the classroom or through the computer on Excel to document their playtime.