Build an Excel Spreadsheet
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Introduction
The objective of this tutorial is to learn to use a spreadsheet to keep student records and to calculate student grades. Along the way, you will learn to navigate in an Excel worksheet, to set column widths, to enter and format text and numeric data, how to use spreadsheet formulas and functions to automate calculations, and how to keep the data sorted.
In my opinion, the spreadsheet is the most powerful and versatile computer application in use in today’s offices and classrooms. Anyone who uses a calculator for repetitive tasks, and then applies the spreadsheet to that task will agree. But crunching numbers is just the beginning. The spreadsheet’s structure, its row-and-column table, is a model that lends itself generally to the two-dimensional design endeavor. On the Dell computers in Trenton Public Schools, we have Excel 2000, and even people who hate Microsoft agree that Excel is the best spreadsheet available.
If you are new to Windows and mousing, I refer you to Kathi Eckert’s excellent Windows 2000 tutorial. Keep my tutorial pages open as you simultaneously open and build your sample grade book, so that you can see both windows. Do this by resize-dragging the Excel window so that you see only the part in which you are working. Resize the browser window so only the part you are reading shows. Before you start and as you finish each part, check your understanding against the Evaluation Rubric.
The scope and sequence of my tutorial arose from another tutorial I found at Microsoft’s web site called, In and Out of the Classroom with Microsoft Office 2000 Professional.
As questions arise, contact me at [jgthomas@trenton.k12.nj.us].
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