“Spreadsheets—An

EXCEL-lent Way to
Learn”
Group 6
Jackie Beck
Heather Haney
Bobby Sargent
Amy Toelaer

February 16, 2004

Introduction

How can Excel spreadsheets be used in the classroom?

What are some problems with the use of spreadsheets in the

classroom? What age level and curriculum area is most

appropriate for using spreadsheets? Many teachers have these same questions. Excel seems as if

it can only be used by adults to do complex tasks, but that is a myth. Excel spreadsheets hold

such potential for today’s students, no matter the age level or curriculum area. Spreadsheets can

be used in many fun and interesting ways. Teachers can benefit from learning about the

advantages of using Excel spreadsheets in the classroom.

Spreadsheets in the Classroom

A spreadsheet is a page with columns and rows. You can enter just about anything in the

columns and rows. Excel spreadsheets hold many uses for teachers within the classroom and

outside of the classroom. Within the classroom, spreadsheets can have a purpose in many

different subject areas. For example, in math, spreadsheets can be used to make graphs, surveys

or in language, the students can compile or work word search or do their definitions. Below is a

table with some examples for teachers on using Excel spreadsheets in the different subject

matters. (“Excel—Integrating”, n.d.)

Classroom Use

Math Science Social Studies Language General/All

Science experiments
Estimation Timeline Alphabetize a list Presentation
- lung capacity
Memorization - hide/unhide
Math facts Weather log Presidential database Word search
columns
Data analysis – from Ancient Civilization
Probability Cross Word puzzle Graphs
experiments chart
Survey Graphs How I spent my day Definitions Charts
Conversions Data analysis Tables
Formulas Pictographs
Graphs Logs
Data analysis-comparing
temperature changes,
measuring average of Mail merge with Word
time spent on TV
watching
Budget

(“Excel—Integrating”, n.d.)

Students can be taught to get ready for the real world using the Excel spreadsheet to keep

track of all sorts of things. They can learn how to keep a list of bills, when they were received,

when the bills were paid, and the amount paid. The spreadsheet can be arranged so that the bills

are listed by month and by category such as utilities, groceries, clothing, health care, and so

forth. This can be made into a year-round project. Give them a monthly “income” and a sheet of

what type of bills to pay and how much they cost. Then give them a checkbook and use Excel

spreadsheets to teach them how to live on a budget and balance a checkbook (Angelo, 1997).
 In the next chart are examples of spreadsheet uses outside the classroom for teachers.

Teacher Use outside the Classroom

Examples of ways teachers can use spreadsheet outside the classroom

Grading work - grade book (If/then or lookup formulas)
Classroom organization - templates, class charts, student database, emergency
information database (auto fill or pivot tables)
Planning lessons - Internet resources, classroom activities,
Worksheets/Activities - templates, math, vocabulary, word search
Quizzes, tests
Awards
Graphs
Timelines
Attendance
(“Excel--Integrating”, n.d.)

Problems With Excel

Although spreadsheets can be a useful learning tool, there are disadvantages associated

with using them in the classroom. The biggest problem with incorporating spreadsheets into

lesson plans is that they have limited uses related to subject areas. Spreadsheets are much more

suited to math and science than they are to subject areas such as English or social studies. In a

math or science class, spreadsheets are a great tool because they organize large amounts of data.

In an English classroom, however, the content is not as well suited to being organized in the

same form as numbers or scientific data. One only has to search the Internet for ideas about using

spreadsheets in the classroom to see that the majority of ideas for teaching students to use

spreadsheets are designed for use in math or science classes.

Spreadsheets can also be problematic if they are used frequently in math classes because

the software does the calculations for the student, according to the Murdoch University in
Australia (“Spreadsheets and Mathematics”, n.d.). Although this can be helpful because it

allows students to manipulate the variables in the spreadsheet and see the consequences of

changes in the variables, because the calculations are completed for the student he or she loses

out on a chance to practice their math skills.

Benefits of Using Excel

The majority of the resources we found seemed, on the surface, to point toward the use of

spreadsheets in mathematics and science classrooms. Upon further investigation, we discovered

that there are multiple uses for spreadsheets in the liberal arts classroom also. The teachers and

students at Ss. Peter & Paul School in Naperville, IL, have come up with some very imaginative

uses for spreadsheets. In the reading and language arts content areas, spreadsheets are useful for

making a reading list, a grammar worksheet, and a self-scoring spelling test. In the area of social

studies they have developed spreadsheets that compared the stances on key issues of Presidential

candidates, listed the Party affiliations of past and present Presidents of the United States, and,

used as a graphic organizer, compared characteristics of ancient civilizations (“School

spreadsheet”, 2001).

Spreadsheets are useful in the lower elementary grades for helping students organize and

analyze data that they collect. For students at the kindergarten and first grade level this could be

something as simple as classifying animals by their like characteristics. Second or third graders

can track the number of books and/or minutes read each week through the use of a spreadsheet.

Students in the fourth and fifth grades can use a spreadsheet to track how their time was spent

each week and discover how many hours they were in school, played sports, watched television,

etc. (“Why do I need”, 1997). On another Website we found examples of students in the
elementary grades using spreadsheets to construct Bingo grids, to record temperature readings,

for graphing, for making timelines, and for learning multiplication facts (Adkins, 2000).

As early as the third grade, the NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics)

recommends that students use spreadsheets to solve problems, analyze data, and examine

patterns. Students in middle and high school can also use spreadsheets to perform higher-order

mathematical calculations and analyses. By using a spreadsheet, students can concentrate on

mathematical reasoning without worrying about performing cumbersome calculations (Ozgun-

Koca, 2000). It is important that the students understand and are able to perform these

calculations on their own before using a spreadsheet to save time in performing them.

Students at all grade levels are engaged by learning through the use of computers. Using

EXCEL spreadsheets as a teaching tool allows teachers to introduce and reinforce concepts

where students can actually “see” them illustrated as opposed to only reading about them. The

use of spreadsheets also allows students to examine real-world situations such as housing and

mortgage costs, and making predictions about stock market trends (Bulion, 2001).

Conclusion

Excel spreadsheets have such a wide variety of uses in the classroom, from a math graph,

to a science weather log, to a social studies timeline. Although there may be a limited use in

certain areas of the curriculum, there are at least a few options of using spreadsheets in the

content areas. Students and teachers alike will benefit from using spreadsheets. Learners at all

age levels can also profit from the interaction and skills learned in the development and

utilization of spreadsheets. Students and teachers alike will benefit from using spreadsheets in
schools. Spreadsheets are not a “wonder tool” by which all teaching can be simplified, but they

definitely provide a method by which data can be more easily organized and analyzed.

References

Adkins, K. (2000) Classroom strategy. To Excel is Elementary. Retrieved February 4, 2004,

from http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/kadkins/strategy.htm.

Angelo, M. (1997). Use Excel 97 to Organize, Analyze, & Publish Data & Info. Retrieved

February 11, 2004, from http://www.intac.com/~aboutcmp/Excel97a.html.

Bulion, L. (2001) EXCEL-lent middle school math lessons. Technology in the Classroom.

Retrieved February 4, 2004, from http://www.education-

world.com/a_tech/tech/tech079.shtml.

Excel—Integrating into the Curriculum. (n.d.) Retrieved February 11, 2004, from

http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/lenglish/Excel/excel_integration.htm.

Madison (WI) Metropolitan School District. (1997) Why do I need a spreadsheet, anyway?

Retrieved February 4, 2004, from http://danenet.wicip.org/mmsd-it/tlc/ssintro.html.

Murdoch University. (n.d.) Spreadsheets and Mathematics Education. Retrieved February 11,

2004, from wwwstaff.murdoch.edu/au/~kissane/spreadsheets.htm.

Ozgun-Koca, S. A. (2000) Using spreadsheets in mathematics education. ERIC Clearinghouse

for Science Mathematics and Environmental Education. Retrieved February 4, 2004,

from http://www.ericfacility.net/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed463951.html.

Ss. Peter & Paul School (IL) (2001) School spreadsheet safari. Retrieved February 11, 2004,

from http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110054/.