Using Spreadsheets in the Classroom

Spreadsheets can be very useful in the classroom. In particular, converting collected data into a graph would be very helpful for students to visually compare results. The program Excel is an excellent tool to use when assisting students with creating graphs and tables of collected information. It is easy to use and I believe it would be very beneficial to teach students how to use this program. The activity I chose for this assignment involved comparing populations of a number of cities across Alberta. Using a graph would be helpful for students to visualize the differences. It would also be interesting to include the city or town that they are from so they can compare that place to other places in Alberta. There are a number of different graphs available on Excel that would be appropriate for different types of information. I have chosen a column graph and a pie graph as the best representations of the demographics of Alberta cities.