I've always had a bit of an aversion to excel.. I think I was asked to do a timed assessment using the program for a job interview once and failed miserably. After today, I'm not so scared. I like the way it's relatively simple to represent data in so many different forms using excel.. bar graph.. pie graph.. colouful or not.
We used M & M's in a chance and data activity to discover how many of each colour M&M's were in a packet? This would be a very engaging activity - kids love hands on learning and all the better that they get to eat the experiment! Of course it is important to keep in mind allergies when facilitating this activity.
Excel can be used with infinite learning activities. It's use is applicable to numerous curriculum areas, including literacy, numeracy, and ICT.
On my last placement, the kids in my class had done an assessment of themselves based on Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligenceshttp://www.multipleintelligencetheory.co.uk
You can do the test here:
http://www.mypersonality.info/basic-vs-pro/multiple-intelligences-test
Using the information they had about their individual learning styles, the students created a pie graph in excel to show where their 'intelligences' lay. The graphs were printed in colour, and pasted onto coloured card along with a written reflection of the students' own attitude to learning, and hung up on a line across the middle of the classroom. Of course, some students said they were awesome at everything, and so had a very evenly cut pie graph, but others had really thought about their answers. As soon as I walked into the room , I could see the individual learning styles of these students, and understand where their strengths and weaknesses lay. This use of excel related the students learning directly to themselves, and also looked great.
is no sound on the computers in the menzies lab, I found the story a little hard to understand at first, and needed to watch it a couple of times to fully understand the plot. We used Inspiration to find the main parts of the story, and copy and paste the pictures into a document, labelling them with what is happening in the story. Greg had a great idea to challenge students to keep breaking down the story into fewer and fewer main ideas, until they had only three or four main points of the story. I like the idea of this for a comprehension activity - it requires a deeper level of higher order thinking than those outlined on the accompanying classroom activity sheets, and also develops skills in ICT.
On my last placement, the kids in my class had done an assessment of themselves based on Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligenceshttp://www.multipleintelligencetheory.co.uk
You can do the test here:
http://www.mypersonality.info/basic-vs-pro/multiple-intelligences-test
Using the information they had about their individual learning styles, the students created a pie graph in excel to show where their 'intelligences' lay. The graphs were printed in colour, and pasted onto coloured card along with a written reflection of the students' own attitude to learning, and hung up on a line across the middle of the classroom. Of course, some students said they were awesome at everything, and so had a very evenly cut pie graph, but others had really thought about their answers. As soon as I walked into the room , I could see the individual learning styles of these students, and understand where their strengths and weaknesses lay. This use of excel related the students learning directly to themselves, and also looked great.
We visited a fantastic website today http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/ It is a collection of animated dreamtime stories from Arnemland. Each story is accompanied by a Study guide, teachers notes, and classroom activity sheet to help teachers design lessons around the animations. As there
is no sound on the computers in the menzies lab, I found the story a little hard to understand at first, and needed to watch it a couple of times to fully understand the plot. We used Inspiration to find the main parts of the story, and copy and paste the pictures into a document, labelling them with what is happening in the story. Greg had a great idea to challenge students to keep breaking down the story into fewer and fewer main ideas, until they had only three or four main points of the story. I like the idea of this for a comprehension activity - it requires a deeper level of higher order thinking than those outlined on the accompanying classroom activity sheets, and also develops skills in ICT. 
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