Spreadsheets

Using spreadsheets in the classroom is a great way to implement kids to do many things such as statistics and other mathematical calculations dealing with almost any subject! For instance, if students are studying geography, they can make a graph of different state populations around the US. Other uses can also be incorporated into the classroom such as counting the number of birthdays per month in the classroom. Another example would be to make a graph of how many students walk, ride bikes, ride the bus or get dropped off at school. These can be used as introductory graphs to place on Excel for students to get a feel for Excel.

For my unit plan, I thought of many different things that could be used for graphs. Since my unit plan has to do with learning about culture and addresses Kindergarten, I thought of a simple in-class study that could be done. Kids could go home and ask parents what their background or culture is. The teacher gets a count and tallies up the numbers. The kids then make a graph of each culture in their classroom and observe the numbers. This can put on Excel for the kids to use a form of technology. The questions I'd use would be:

Why is it important to learn of other cultures around us?

How do our cultures make the world any different?

Why is it important for us to know our cultures and backgrounds?

I think these questions are inquiry-based and can spark discussion because they don't require yes or no answers, they require in-depth answers to make kids actually think!