Lesson Two

This week we have been learning about Spreadsheets and Databases and how effective they are in the classroom. I found the website http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/ict/ict2.htm that had many different post on interesting ways to teach about Spreadsheets and Databases and creative ways for students to learn how to use them. For myself spreadsheets have always been a very organized grid for financial affairs. Once you can understand how to input formulas into the spreadsheet it is easy to see how inserting different inputs affects the outcome.  The website above had a couple different exercises for students to practice with spreadsheet. One was called "Ben's Burger Bar" where you can input the food items your friends are purchasing and play around with different combinations of food items to see how much you will spend on your food. There are also a couple party budget spreadsheets where you are given a budget and have to create your own party list. I think this is a great tool for students to learn early on because it can help them when they need to financially plan for things in the future. The big thing about the spreadsheet that I really like is that you can change any cell's input and it automatically recalculates the entire sheet.
I know that in a lot of my music undergrad classes we used Excel to create budgets for a beginning band program and trip planning. We were given a budget and we had to research prices and list out exactly how many of each items; music stands, books, instruments, etc. that we needed to purchase in the scenario given. We also used Excel to plan "spring fieldtrips" and we had to list out bus cost, ticket cost, meal cost, etc... I really like using excel because you can research different options and their cost and input the prices into the cells and see that different outcomes. That way you can organize and manipulate the numerical data and play around with "what if" situations. Aside from student use with spreadsheets I feel that teachers can also use spreadsheets when it comes to attendance, and grade books. In my classroom I would try to show students that they are many purposes for spreadsheets and I would give them an assignment to do by giving them a budget of say $100 and plan a classroom party.
I have learned that in databases you can store data and use keywords or similarities to group items so it eliminates the time you spend searching for information. Students could research place like the "Museum of Natural History" or the "Smithsonian" and see that they use databases to organize their museum collections. Students could really see how they use databases in paleontology and anthropology to classify and group things together. I think that the biggest thing I would want my students to understand about spreadsheets and databases are that they are used every day in so many ways. We use them to budget, classify, and make predictions.