How to Teach Students How to Use Excel
Microsoft Excel comes bundled with the Microsoft Office package. It is a widely used spreadsheet program in which you can input and manipulate data. Teaching students how to use this program would greatly benefit many of them later in life as it is commonly used in the workplace. Excel teaches students how data can be used and interpreted. Students at any level can be introduced to the program as long as they are familiar with graphs and charts.
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Instructions
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Review the use of tables, charts and graphs. Remind your students, using examples from homework, how tables are used to organize data. Also show them examples of charts displaying an upward, downward, or stagnant trend.
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Explain the basic uses of Excel to your students. For instance, you can explain to them that business owners use Excel to keep track of their stock or how much they should be paying their employees.
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Instruct the students to open Excel by clicking on "Start." Then move the cursor over to "Programs," find the folder titled "Microsoft Office" and have them click the program "Microsoft Excel" in this folder.
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Explain to your students the basic terms associated with Excel such as rows, columns, spreadsheets and cells. Tell them that each little box is a "cell" and that the horizontal rows of them are called "rows." The vertical rows are called "columns." Have them note that each row and column have a letter or a number attached to them for identifying. When you click on a cell, you can input data into that cell by typing the information in the bottom toolbar. The only way to move data from one cell to another is through the use of the "Copy" and "Cut" functions.
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Begin an easy exercise for the students by collecting data on the class and writing the information on the board. For example, find out how much pizza was eaten in the past month, how much television the students watched in the past week or how many birthdays per month.
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Instruct the students to create the titles for the columns in A1 and B1. For instance, they would put "Names" in A1 and "Pizza Slices" in B1.
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Tell your students to write the names of every student in the corresponding cells under the column that they have titled "Names."
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Instruct your students to copy down the data collected on the board for their "B" column. In the case of this example, students would record the number of pizza slices.
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Remind students to save their work before proceeding.
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Tell your students to highlight the data by clicking on A2, holding it down as they cover all of the data in both columns.
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Have your students click the "Data" option in the upper left section of the screen and select "Sort."
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Explain to the students how to change the way the data can be sorted. Have them sort the information in the B column with the numbers either ascending or descending. After they have completed this task, ask them to exit out of this menu by clicking "OK."
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Make the data into a chart or graph by going to "Insert" and selecting "Chart." The data should still be highlighted. If the data is not highlighted, the students need to go back and highlight it again.
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Go through the "Chart Wizard" with them and show them the different kinds of charts they can make.
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Have your students save their work and print.
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Tips & Warnings
Remind your students to save often in case something happens.
References
Resources
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