Basic Productivity Tools (BPT) Lesson Idea

Lesson Title Excel-ing at data and graphs

(Collecting data and graphing quantitative variables in Excel)

Content Area Algebra, Grades 9-12

Content Standards MGSE9-12.S.ID.1 Represent data with plots on the real number line (dot
plots, histograms, and box plots).

Technology Standards Empowered Learner:

Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving,
and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the
learning sciences.
1c: Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and
improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a
variety of ways.
1d: Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology
operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot
current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to
explore emerging technologies.

Knowledge Constructor:
Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct
knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning
experiences for themselves and others.
3c. Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of
tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate
meaningful connections or conclusions.

Integrated Technology Microsoft Excel (Spreadsheet software):

- Students can use this tool to input the data provided/collected on a
Word document, to create graphs such as a histogram.

Microsoft Word (Word Processing software):

- Students can use this software to collect data.

Computers/Laptops/Tablets (provided by the school):

- This technology can be used by the students to access BPTs such as
Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word.

Reference or Examples of online, academic sites that provide free and easy access to
Supporting Resources datasets (i.e., survey datasets) and/or various statistical software formats are
provided below. Students can use these sites to either browse data sets that
can input and graphed in excel, or use these tools to organize their data into
a table.
- DataLab
- Online Codebook
Bloom’s Taxonomy Understanding – Students will participate as a class to create the data that
Levels they will be using. They will report this information into a word document,
showing that they understand where the data comes from and what it means.

Applying – Students will demonstrate their understanding of the information

as well as the software (Excel), by using the data to create histograms and
bar charts.

Analyzing – Students will use Excel (spreadsheet software) to create

histograms and bar charts for two or more sets of data. They will then make
observations and comparisons based on the visuals they’ve created.

Creating – Students will use the data they’ve collected to produce graphs on
Excel.

Integration Level Level 4: Integration

Universal Design This activity and the technology tools selected in this lesson support and
Rationale enhance the learning experience for students in the classroom, mainly due to
the fact that they promote interactivity and help students create a product.
This is beneficial because students can use these tools to input data and
construct visual graphics, such as histograms and box plots. Additionally, this
activity supports engagement, since these tools provide students with the
opportunity to make observations based on their own exploration of the
content.

Lesson Idea For my lesson idea, the teacher will begin by conducting a class survey for
any two quantitative variables (ex. height, age, class size, etc.) for a sample
size of 14 students. The students will then collect and report the data in a
Word document. After this is done, they will input the data into Excel, create a
table using this information, and create both a histogram and box chart. As
previously explained, the project will be introduced by the teacher, who will
ask the class what quantitative variables they would like to choose.
Additionally, the teacher will ask the students to make up a total of 14 values
per variable (for a sample size of 14 students). Students will be given 20
minutes to create the data as a class, and to organize it on a Word document.
They will be given another 30 minutes to sort the information into Excel,
create a table, then create a histogram and a box plot. Students will have the
rest of class to summarize this information, during which they should write a
brief description of the data on separate slides on a shared PowerPoint. This
will be their exit ticket for the day.
Student learning will be assessed primarily by the teacher, who will be
walking around the classroom to observe and help students. Additionally,
students will know if they’ve encountered an obstacle in this activity based on
the feedback given to them by Excel (the spreadsheet software). For
instance, if a student attempts to input the wrong values or information, the
software will alert them that it can’t compute that specific function.
Additionally, the final product will be used to inform/differentiate learning by
having students engage with various different types of basic productivity
tools. For this lesson, the BPTs will mainly be spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel)
and word processing software (Microsoft Word). Students can use these tools
in addition to their understanding of the material to create a product. By doing
so, they will extend their learning to a higher level of learning. This is because
the activity, as well as the tools associated with it, encourage the students to
 interact with the lesson directly. As a result, they will be thinking critically
about how the information relates to each other, and how to decipher
meaning after representing it in different ways (i.e., the histogram and box
plots). I will conclude this lesson with an exit ticket, which I briefly explained
above. Each class will have a shared PowerPoint, which they will use to write
a short description/explanation of their graphs. For example, students could
identify and explain the best measurement of central tendency when
discussing their histograms. I will provide feedback to the students in person
while walking around the class, as well as written feedback that I will post on
each of their slides on the PowerPoint.

Design Reflection I believe that the activities I created in this lesson would positively impact
student learning, largely because it incorporates all three types of BPTs
without being overly complicated or confusing. Additionally, it serves as an
introductory activity to a unit of study, and allows students to explore and
interact with the material. I believe this direct involvement could help students
further develop their critical thinking skills and understanding of the content.
To further extend the lesson, students could be given larger datasets,
including qualitative variables. This would allow them to create other graphs,
such as pie charts and bar graphs, create frequency tables, identify different
types of variables, and more. Other technology tools that could further
enhance this project could include coding tools, such as R Studio. This would
give students the opportunity to further explore datasets and statistical
functions using processes that aren’t included in Excel.