Spreadsheet Diversity

A lot of people see spreadsheets as a tool in mathematics alone. Being a mathematics major I see math in everything, so I think of spreadsheets as a way to incorporate math into other areas. I think involving the use of spreadsheets in the classroom is a good idea. Not only does the use of spreadsheets allow for corporation of math into other subject areas, it allows students to learn about different software applications and medias in the classroom. It also allows students to organize and analyze material and information.

One way I might incorporate spreadsheets into an elementary classroom would be to have the students list specific qualities…hair colour, eye colour, nationality, favorite colour, pets, etc. The qualities could contain a range of things. Students would then poll their peers to see how many other students fit into the selected qualities. Students would then input their results into a spreadsheet, and graph the results. I believe this assignment would open students’ eyes to the diversity in their very own classroom.