Education World ® Technology Center: EXCEL-lent Middle... -
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Published on: 4/13/2001
Last Visited: 2/27/2006
This week, Education World talks with Illinois middle school teacher Kelly McMahon about three important roles Excel plays in her seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms.Included: Samples of student work, ideas from other teachers, and practical Web sites to help teachers get started using Excel in their own classrooms.
"I have always been interested in bringing visual, hands-on activities into my classroom," said math teacher Kelly McMahon, who is also assistant principal and technology coordinator for St. Joseph School in Libertyville, Illinois."I use Excel regularly in my math classes, and I love it!
When McMahon transferred to St. Joseph School from a school in which computers were not available, she dived right into the Excel lessons integrated into Gateways to Algebra and Geometry (McDougal, Littel, 1997), a middle-grades math text."That textbook helped me get started," McMahon told Education World."I went from there and found ways to expand using Excel.I use it to teach and reinforce math concepts.It is a powerful teaching tool."
McMahon uses a projection device to introduce a concept and demonstrate a technique on Excel."Excel is a great way of introducing the idea of variables and setting up equations," McMahon told Education World."When you set up an Excel spreadsheet, you are not really working with numbers.You are working with variables -- referencing 'cells.'"
One of McMahon's favorite concept lessons involves square roots and squaring."I start with a negative number and create an ascending list of numbers," said McMahon.
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"I also use Excel to demonstrate how to solve problems with repeated change," McMahon told Education World.
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McMahon asks her students."When will the balance and the spending level off?"
"We can forecast that with the click of a button -- it's a piece of cake!"McMahon told Education World.
REAL-WORLD STUDENT PROJECTS
After a several-week unit on graphing, McMahon's students are ready to use Excel to pursue individual, real-world research projects.
"I start them out with some examples," McMahon said, "such as a survey about favorite food or plotting changes in the Olympic high-jump record over the years.I ask my students, 'If the upward trend continues, what will happen to the high-jump record in 2020?'
"With my seventh graders, we just extend the line," McMahon explained."With eighth graders, we actually do a linear regression, find the equation of the trend line, and plot it.With Excel, you create a spreadsheet, make a scatter plot, and get a trend line with its equation.In the Olympic high-jump record example, our own analysis of the data and our own conclusions would reflect the idea of human limitation and how it might influence the upward trend.
"I focus on drawing conclusions," McMahon stressed.
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"When we are working along and a graph pops up, I get a chorus of 'cool!'" McMahon laughed.
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McMahon is gratified that her students use Excel to go beyond what their homework requires."They use Excel on homework problems when it might have been quicker to do the problem with paper and pencil because they are interested to try it out and see what happens," McMahon said.
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