Any ideas for interesting spreadsheets for pupils

[coolerking]

Hi,
After many years of teaching maths, I have started teaching IT for pupils aged between 12-15. The school has been lacking direction in this department so the pupils are lacking good skills. I have started teaching them Excel and they absolutely love it. I have been trying to give them interesting examples and have found many ideas on the web and created some myself. I hoping that someone could give me some ideas or point me in the direction of good books or resourses.

An example of a recent task was to create a crossword that has conditional formatting so it will indicate either if the letters entered are correct or incorrect and using comments for to display questions. Then I have thought about a wordsearch where they enter the words they want and then use randbetween and char functions to create random letters elswhere.

Using a mixture of 2007 and 2010 (don't ask!) in the same room but this will soon be just 2010. I hope to use Access in a couple of months but it's been quite a few years since I used it.


Many thanks for any input,
Cooler

 

[SuperFerret]

What about Sudoku?

I must admit I am more or less completely useless at maths (hence why I got into Excel in the first place) which wasn't helped by the teachers I had at school. So I'm glad you're finding a way to get kids interested in it (hiding it in IT) using technology!

You could also get them doing something like the Christmas Tree challenge that appeared in the Lounge, to make Excel draw a picture?

 

[coolerking]

What about Sudoku?

I must admit I am more or less completely useless at maths (hence why I got into Excel in the first place) which wasn't helped by the teachers I had at school. So I'm glad you're finding a way to get kids interested in it (hiding it in IT) using technology!

You could also get them doing something like the Christmas Tree challenge that appeared in the Lounge, to make Excel draw a picture?

That's a good idea, thank you very much. Yes, they don't realise they are doing maths or how high the level of think is.

Christmas tree, that sounds good, I will look for that now.

Thanks,
Cooler

 

[placebo2000]

Have a look at the ExcelUnusual site to see what can be accomplished in Excel. There have been some good tutorials recently on projectile motion that might be just the thing.

 

[coolerking]

Have a look at the ExcelUnusual site to see what can be accomplished in Excel. There have been some good tutorials recently on projectile motion that might be just the thing.

Thanks, I'll have a look.

Cooler

 

[coolerking]

Wow, it's too advanced for the age of the kids I currently teach but that may change next year.

It certainly makes me know where I want to go with the quality of my work and the kids I teach. Great stuff.

Many thanks,
Cooler

 

[Warship]

How about TV Game shows? Deal or No Deal
Maybe a Memory Match game.
How about Yahtzee?

 

[SuperFerret]

Something I just spotted that might be useful: http://www.mrexcel.com/mathclassroom.html

 

[coolerking]

Something I just spotted that might be useful: http://www.mrexcel.com/mathclassroom.html

Amazing, just ordered that and two other ebooks! What chance that eh?

Cheers SuperFerret, your consideration is noted. You must know that I went to uni in Sheffield!


Cooler

 

[SuperFerret]

You must know that I went to uni in Sheffield!

Really? Small world eh!!