Sometimes the use of a spreadsheet can help the pupils to perform calculations more easily and also to display their results graphically in the form of bar charts and pie charts. This facility to be able to represent the results in a graphical form quickly and also be able to update their data and observe the effect this has on the resultant bar chart can be a very poweful and useful feature.
An important feature of CASE is its concentration on higher order thinking skills. The use of spreadsheets can allow pupils to spend more time on interpreting and analysing the information obtained, and less on tedious, repetitive tasks.
As an example of the use of spreadsheets the following makes use of Excel to analyse the data obtained by groups of pupils performing Activity 13 'Spinning Coins.' Each group of pupils spins a coin 50 times and they record their results in a table. This is the raw data that they will use for further analysis. The first stage of their analysis is to count the frequency of runs of heads which they record in a second table. The next stage is to add their results to the class results. Instead of using the OHP the pupils can use the spreadsheet. This has a number of advantages. The addition is done for them and as each group result is added, the class histogram is interactively updated.
Below is an example of a typical set of results:
This file is provided within this site for you to download and adapt for your own use.
Click here to download the Excel file. (140K)