Lesson framework - Spreadsheeting in Google Sheets
In this spreadsheet activity students in Year 7 will create a survey and collect data from their class and one other about their habits or interests. The purpose is to find out more about each other as a group as well as learning practical skills in data collection and representation.
They will then analyse the collected data using a spreadsheet and present it in an appropriate table and graphical representation. Their final product will be a single slide which will go together with other students to create a class presentation on data and it’s representation.
Topic: Data collection and representation
Syllabus outcomes: The Australian Curriculum outcomes for this area in Stage 4 (Year 7) are
Lesson goals: By the end of this topic students will understand:
Complex concepts: By the end of this topic students will understand,
Data description: The data collected will be the answers to a series of questions that students ask of their peers about an area of interest.
For example,
Rows: The rows will be each individual student’s response to the question(s).
Whilst this is just a lesson framework and not a detailed lesson plan the output or product created by students should be something along the lines outlined below. This example was done using google sheets and would enable easy sharing of data if the activity was done in groups. It would also allow students to publish their graphs to a website if that was preferred to a class presentation slideshow.
Sample spreadsheet below:
They will then analyse the collected data using a spreadsheet and present it in an appropriate table and graphical representation. Their final product will be a single slide which will go together with other students to create a class presentation on data and it’s representation.
Topic: Data collection and representation
Syllabus outcomes: The Australian Curriculum outcomes for this area in Stage 4 (Year 7) are
- communicates and connects mathematical ideas using appropriate terminology, diagrams and symbols (MA-1WM)
- recognises and explains mathematical relationships using reasoning (MA4-3WM)
- collects, represents and interprets single sets of data, using appropriate statistical displays (MA4-19SP)
Lesson goals: By the end of this topic students will understand:
- The process and nuances of designing a survey
- How to word questions in a survey to generate unbiased data
- The difference between categorical and quantitative data
- How to organise data in a spreadsheet - to produce simple tables and graphs
- How to calculate in a spreadsheet - sums, counts, mean, median, mode.
Complex concepts: By the end of this topic students will understand,
- How to turn “worded” survey answers into quantitative data
- Why the questions you ask can be as important as the data you collect
- How to conduct a survey
- How a sample may or may not be representative of the population
- How important it is to enter data correctly and know how to use a spreadsheet
Data description: The data collected will be the answers to a series of questions that students ask of their peers about an area of interest.
For example,
- what is your favourite sporting team from this list?
- what is your favourite dessert from this list?
- what is your favourite colour from this list?
- which news station do you watch on TV?
- how many siblings do you have?
- what month is your birthday?
Rows: The rows will be each individual student’s response to the question(s).
Whilst this is just a lesson framework and not a detailed lesson plan the output or product created by students should be something along the lines outlined below. This example was done using google sheets and would enable easy sharing of data if the activity was done in groups. It would also allow students to publish their graphs to a website if that was preferred to a class presentation slideshow.
Sample spreadsheet below: