I am working with second grade teachers from Morgan this week. We are using Excel to learn about Pie Charts and Bar Graphs. The students are learning a lot and having fun! We use a laptop and projector in the classroom so all the students can see the screen. We work together to come up with a topic for a graph and gather information to create a data table. Students take turns coming up to the laptop to enter information. From there, I create the graph and we give it a title and a legend. Once the graph is created we talk about how the data and graph pieces are related.
For Example:
What will happen to the bars if we change a number in the table?
What will happen to the scale if we make a number bigger then the top number in the scale?
Or, for pie charts:
What will happen to the other pieces when we change one number? Will they get smaller, bigger or stay the same?
Since Excel charts are linked to the data tables the chart will automatically update as you change anything in the table. The students get really excited when they see this and start asking to change more numbers! They start making predictions about what will happen to the graphs as we change each piece of data. By the end of the lesson they really understand what the graphs are representing! It is great to see all the 'light bulbs' turning on and the information sinking in!
I worked with the 2nd grade students last year with the same lesson and it went really well! I am always impressed at how well the students respond both academically and behaviorally to this lesson. We have another great group of second grade students and teachers this year!
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