Graphing Lesson Plan

Created by Heather McCarty: INT 925 Project #2

Materials:

Excel

Internet Access

Paper & Pencil

Objective:

Students will be able to use an online graphing program to graph data collected.

Students will be able to use Excel to graph data collected.

Students will compare the graphs to determine their own preference.

State Standard:

Students will be able to analyze data.

Lesson:

1.              Have students survey their classmates using 5 different variables (for example: favorite movie, color, food, etc.).

2.              After gathering the data using tally marks, have students go to http://www.teachersfirst.com/getsource.cfm?id=5104  and choose Bar Graph.

3.              Students should next click on the "Data" tab.

4.              Enter the title of your graph (ex: Favorite Movies of 3^rd Graders)

Enter the x coordinate as "Movies" and the y coordinate should say "Total"

5.              Next enter each "movie" name under "Item #s" along with the total.

6.              Click "Save" and then click on the tab "Labels."

7.              Under "Fonts" choose what you want it to look like.

8.              Click "Save" and then "Preview."

9.              Make sure your graph looks correct.  Check it with your data.  Make any changes necessary and then click on the "Print" tab to print.

10.           Next have students open a new Excel document and record their data to look like the following:

Movies	Total
Title 1	#
Title 2	#
Title 3	#
Title 4	#
Title 5	#

11.           Next students should highlight the area used (cells 1:1 through 6:2) then select the "Chart Wizard."

12.           Click"Column" and then "Next" and then "Next" again.

13.           Name Your Chart and then designate your x and y axis.

14.           Click "Next" and then "Finish".

15.           Print graphs.

16.           Compare the graphs you created and decide which you like best.