Unit 5 I Spreadsheet

Spreadsheet
5

Unit
Learning Objectives
By the end of Unit 5, learners should be able to:

• Work with formulae.

This Unit includes a recap of the basic spreadsheet skills learned in previous grades.

Let's look at what you have already done in previous grades.

What is a Spreadsheet software?

Recall
A spreadsheet software is a computer program

that displays a grid into which we can enter text,
numbers or formulae.
The spreadsheet grid is made up of rows and
columns. Observe the Microsoft Excel
spreadsheet window.
Hello Dear friends.
We are going to learn spreadsheets in this
unit. Before we start lets us recapitulate what
you have done in Grade 4 till Grade 6.

Worksheet

The Microsoft Excel window is similar to the Microsoft Word window. The main differences are
shown in the figure above.
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Cell address

Every cell in a spreadsheet has an address given by its column letter followed by its row number.
When you open a blank Excel spreadsheet, it is known as a workbook and each spreadsheet in
a workbook is called a worksheet.

Spreadsheet Activity 1 : Identifying cells, rows and columns

In the Spreadsheet window below:

1. Shade Row 3 Blue

2. Shade Column F Red

3. What is the address of the cell where column E and row 3 meet? Answer: ................

4. What is the address of the shaded cell? Answer: ................

5. Shade cell K12 Black

Take Note

The mathematical operators used when writing Excel formulae are:

Addition +
Subtraction -
Multiplication *
Division /

All spreadsheet formulae start with the “=” symbol.

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 Unit 5 I Spreadsheet

Spreadsheet Activity 2 : Creating a Simple Formula

1. Open Microsoft Excel and create a blank workbook.

2. Click in cell A1 and enter the following: =6+3

3. Press the Enter key to validate the formula.

4. Excel will calculate and display the result. What is the content of cell A1?

5. Click on cell A1. You can see the formula in the formula bar.

6. Click on the formula bar and change the formula to =6 – 3 and Press Enter.
What is the new value of A1?

7. After step 6 cell A1 contains value .................. .

8. Change the formula to =6 /3 and Press Enter. Observe what happens to the value of cell A1?

9. After step 9 cell A1 contains the value .................. .

10. Finally change the formula to = 6 * 3 and Press Enter.

Does the contents of cell A1 change? What is the new value? ..................

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 Spreadsheet Activity 3 : Using Cell Address in a formula

In this activity, we are going to write formulae using cell addresses.

1. Use the workbook you created in Activity 2.

2. Enter the number 6 in cell B1.

3. Enter the number 2 in cell B2.

4. Enter the following formula in cell B3: =B1+B2 and press Enter.

Formula: .......................................
After step 4
B1 contains .......................................
B2 contains .......................................
B3 contains .......................................

5. Note: we are using the address of the cells instead of the actual numbers.

6. Note down your observation in the answer box.

7. Change the number in cell B2 to 3 and press Enter.

8. What do you observe? Has the formula changed?

9. Note down your observations in the answer box

below.

Answer Box

Formula: .......................................
After step 4
B1 contains .......................................
B2 contains .......................................
B3 contains .......................................

10. Save the file.

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 Unit 5 I Spreadsheet

Spreadsheet Activity 4

A spreadsheet contains the following information.

In this part of the activity you do not need a computer.

Write the formulae in the appropriate cell in the above table to calculate

(i) The total marks obtained by each student.

(ii) The average marks for each student. You may use answer from part (i).

Practical Task

For this part of the activity you will need a computer.

1. Open Microsoft Excel.

2. Create a new workbook.

3. Enter the above information in the spreadsheet.

4. Enter the formula for the calculation of total marks in Column E

5. Enter the formula for calculating the average marks in column F.

6. Save the file as myMarkList.xlsx

Excel Functions

Study the spreadsheet. It is used to record the

amount of rainfall at Port-Louis for the months
of January to December.

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The formula you would write in cell B15 to calculate the total rainfall for the year is
=B2 + B3 + B4 + B5 + B6 + B7 + B8 + B9 + B10 + B11 + B12 + B13

Notice how time consuming it is to write such a long formula.

An easier way would be to use an Excel function to do the same calculation.
A function performs calculations using specific values.
Excel provides functions that can be suitable for quickly finding the sum, average, count,
maximum value, and minimum value for a range of cells.

For Grade 7, you need to know the following functions:

SUM
To find the sum of a set of numbers

AVERAGE
To find the average of a set of numbers

MAXIMUM
To find the maximum value from a set of numbers

MINIMUM
To find the minimum value from a set of numbers

COUNT
To find the number of cells that contain data.

Parts of a function
For a function to work correctly, it must be written in a specific way.
A function starts with the “equal to” symbol. This is followed by the function name.
The range of cells on which the calculation will be done is written inside brackets just after the
function name.

For example, if we want to find the total rainfall for the whole year in the spreadsheet above,
we would write the following
=SUM (B2:B13) in cell B15

To calculate the average rainfall, we just need to use change the function, and we will write
=AVERAGE (B2:B13) in cell B16

Now, write the function you will use to find the maximum and minimum rainfall.

Function to find maximum rainfall (cell B17) ...............................................................

Function to find minimum rainfall (cell B18) ...............................................................

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 Unit 5 I Spreadsheet

Spreadsheet Activity 5 : Using Functions

Practical Task

We are going to modify the spreadsheet file created in Activity 4.

1. Open Microsoft Excel.

2. Open spreadsheet myMarkList.xlsx (created and saved in Activity 4).

3. Make sure that the spreadsheet already contains the above information.

4. Click on cell E2. Then click on the formula bar.

5. You will see the following formula =B2+C2+D2

6. Change the formulae to a function by typing =SUM (B2:D2) on the formula bar.

7. Press Enter to see the result.

8. To find the average for student Kelly use function AVERAGE.

9. In cell F2 type =AVERAGE(B2:D2) and press Enter.

10. Complete the spreadsheet to find total marks and average for remaining two students,
using functions.

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 Spreadsheet Activity 6 : Using Functions

A family keeps track of its monthly expenses using a spreadsheet.

The following table showsthe entries made in the spreadsheet.

Practical Task

1. Setup a spreadsheet to input the above information

2. Making use of Excel functions, for each utility bill find its

a. Total amount paid from January to May

b. The average bill amount for the five months

c. The maximum amount paid

d. The minimum amount paid

e. The number of months that this spreadsheet covers

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