Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are a valuable tool to all educators and students. They provide a way for gathering and viewing data and help lists of numbers and information to make sense. Students who created their own spreadsheets will be doing a majority of the work themselves. They will gather data, organize it, and find answers to questions. This style of learning has been referred to as inquiry-based learning. It is the seeking of knowledge. The process of inquiring begins with gathering information and data through applying the human senses. Children need this style of hands-on learning to be successful in their education. When children learn things first hand, they grasp and retain the information much better.
A few questions I would use to guide my students in creating their own spreadsheets are:

1. By what means will you gather the needed information?

2. How much information will you decide to use and how much is really needed to get a good understanding?

3. Which Excel tools will you use to present this information?

These types of questions will help students think about what they are doing. They will have to consider what information they want to use and how much they need to use in order to create a viable spreadsheet and an understandable presentation.

A Great Way to Teach and to Learn!!!

My video, entitled Our Warm Earth, deals with issues that face all of us. In it I talk about the earth’s perfect distance from the sun, the average temperatures of Venus, Earth, and Mars, and what we need to do to keep our earth’s ecology healthy.
I used various tools to create this movie. First, I drew several pictures/illustrations that appropriately depict earth’s distance from the sun and temperature. Another tool I used was my video camera. I filmed a gas tank (depicting the need to be fuel efficient drivers), an electrical outlet (depicting the need use less electricity), and a few pictures of easily recycled items. In addition, I used pictures downloaded from the internet to supplement my video. Most importantly, I utilized Windows Movie Maker. Movie Maker allowed me to blend together the internet pictures, original pictures, and videos in order to create a film. I also employed a headset and microphone for use in narrating my movie.

Although this was a tricky assignment, I feel that now that I understand how to do it, I would love to teach my future students how to make their own movies. There are literally endless ways students can learn by watching and creating original movies. The information they gather will be their own. They will be able to put it all together and organize it according to how they see fit. Such a hands-on task will surely be beneficial and the educational benefits derived will be long lasting! Additionally, parents can join their child in creating movie projects. It would be great to see several parents and children work as teams on specific projects.

I would also love to see students create movies as part of their science fair projects. Instead of the usual flat board, I would encourage students to put their findings, pictures, charts, and anything else into video and picture format and create a movie! In fact, I believe that any subject can be explored thoroughly by means of a creative original movie-I hope to use this tool regularly in my future classroom!

My Video- Our Warm Earth