Spreadsheets in the Classroom

Mr. Oliver's Pumkin Project

I was very interested to see how a teacher could creatively adapt a spreadsheet for a classroom of early elementary students. I really enjoyed Mr. Oliver's lesson on Pumpkins and the relation between there weight and how many seeds they have. The classroom of 2nd graders were attempting to answer the question, "Do larger pumpkins have more pumpkin seeds?"

Using spreadsheets (quite cute I might add), students gathered information about the weight, counted seeds, and even had predictions. In the end, students could compare their data to other groups and see the relationship between the pumkin weight and amount of seeds.

Mr. Oliver was able to integrate counting in 10's and technology use in the classroom of 2nd graders! I was aprhensive at first because the students were restless during the directions portion of the assignment but WOW did the get in to it! I can't imagine my little sister, who is in the 2nd grade, using bar graphs and spreadsheets. I am impressed.

Adaptation

As far as implementing the use of spreadsheets similar to this one, I think it would be an intereting idea to compare words in Spanish, English, and a few common Latin based languages in order to view cognates. Cognates that are words that you can understand in another language because they are so similar to your native language. In English and Spanish for example:

television = televisión
phenomenal = fenomenal
immigration = inmigración
clear = claro

By creating a table, we can keep track of those types of words and possible predict what we think could happen by the end of the semester. We could answer questions like, "How many cognative word will we have learned by the end of the semester?" or "Based on cognates, theoretically would it be easier to learn multiple languages after mastering 2?

I think it would give language students an opportunity to understand how most western languages are truly rooted and adapted from Latin and each other.

I really enjoyed checking out School Spreadsheet Safari also because it has great links to activities using spreadsheets as well as simple resources for understanding terms and usage within Excel. Check it out!

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