Unit 3, Lesson 7
Spreadsheet Computations (Optional)
Integrated Math 1
7.1
Warm-up
Standards Alignment
None
Building On
Addressing
Building Toward
Instructional Routines
NoneMaterials
NoneActivity Narrative
The purpose of this Warm-up is to remind students about some familiar mathematical contexts, to prepare them for engaging with some word problems later in the lesson.
Launch
NoneActivity
None- A person walks 4 miles per hour for 2.5 hours. How far does the person walk?
- A rectangle has an area of 24 square centimeters. What could be its length and width?
- What is the area of this triangle?
Student Response
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Building on Student Thinking
Activity Synthesis
None7.2
Activity
Optional
Materials
Activity Narrative
The purpose of this activity is for students to learn and practice how to use a spreadsheet to do calculations using some common operations, including some illustrations of how parentheses can be used to indicate order of operations.
Launch
Ensure that each student has access to a spreadsheet. If using the digital version of the materials, there is a spreadsheet in the Math Tools.
Display the same type of spreadsheet students are using (or the student task) on your projector, and demonstrate how to use it as a calculator. Be sure to communicate the following.
- The = symbol often must be typed as the very first thing in the cell. (Demonstrate what happens if the = symbol is not included.)
- How to "submit" the formula so the computation takes place. If student devices have a keyboard, it's likely the Enter key. On a tablet, they may have to tap a check mark.
- Symbols to use for various operations, and how students can find them on their keyboards. Be sure to include these symbols:
- + for add
- - for subtract or for a negative number (this symbol does double duty in most spreadsheets)
- * for multiply
- / for divide or for a fraction
- ^ for an exponent
- . for a decimal point
- ( ) to tell it what to compute first (often needed around fractions)
Consider displaying these commands for all to see and leaving them visible while students work on the activity.
Representation: Develop Language and Symbols. Provide students with access to charts with symbols and meanings. The chart should include all the symbols to use for various operations in a spreadsheet. Be sure to demonstrate using the commands in the spreadsheet as a calculator.
Supports accessibility for: Conceptual Processing, Memory
Supports accessibility for: Conceptual Processing, Memory
7.3
Activity
Optional
Instructional Routines
NoneMaterials
Activity Narrative
The purpose of this activity is for students to understand how to use references to cells to calculate values. In later lessons, students may wish to use spreadsheets to perform similar calculations on different numbers and using references can save time so that students do not need to retype all the calculations.
Launch
Display a blank spreadsheet. In cell B3, type a 2 and press enter. Point to that cell and ask students how to refer to that cell. Tell students that people often call B3 the "address" of the cell, and 2 the "contents" of the cell.
Activity
None7.4
Activity
Optional
Instructional Routines
NoneMaterials
Activity Narrative
The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate that spreadsheets can be efficient when repeating similar calculations with different values. A single spreadsheet formula can refer to the contents of cells and the calculation will automatically update when the values change.
If time is short, the first two questions can be skipped or you can tell students to choose only one of them. It's important that all students complete the last two questions to illustrate why a spreadsheet can be more useful than a handheld calculator when you need to repeat the same calculation for different values.
Launch
Representation: Access for Perception. Read all situations aloud. Students who both listen to and read the information will benefit from extra processing time.
Supports accessibility for: Language
Supports accessibility for: Language
Student Lesson Summary
A spreadsheet can be thought of as a type of calculator. For example, in a cell, you could type , and then the sum of 5 is displayed in the cell. You can also perform operations on the values in other cells. For example, if you type a number in A1 and a number in A2, and then in A3 type , cell A3 will display the sum of the values in cells A1 and A2.
Familiarize yourself with how your spreadsheet software works on your device.
- On some spreadsheet programs, an = symbol must be typed before the expression in the cell. (On others, it does not matter if your expression begins with =.)
- Know how to "submit" the expression so the computation takes place. If your device has a keyboard, it's likely the Enter key. On a touchscreen device, you may have to tap a check mark.
- Learn symbols to use for various operations, and how to find them on your keyboard. Here are the symbols used for some typical operations:
- + for add
- - for subtract or for a negative number (this symbol does double duty in most spreadsheets)
- * for multiply
- / for divide
- / for the fraction
- ^ for an exponent
- . for a decimal point
- ( ) to tell it what to compute first (often needed around fractions)