Using Excel for Quantitative Skill Development Benjamin J. Maas Buena Vista University

Workshop Objectives Introductions Why I use Excel based assignments http://bigcommunity.net/big_news/organizational-gains-from-a-technology-driven-big-data-strategy/ Introductions Why I use Excel based assignments Example assignments Growth of students’ Excel abilities Things to consider Time to work on assignment ideas Q & A

Introductions What do you want to gain from today? What are the most important Excel abilities students should have? When do you allow students the chance to practice them? https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/excel-2003-the/0596006640/apas02.html Write answers down on large sheets provided on tables https://mashable.com/2017/03/01/clippy-chrome-extension-microsoft/

*Note* Can Use Google Spreadsheet Instead Has all capabilities of Microsoft Excel Free and many students use it because editable online

Why Do I Use Based Excel Assignments? Was not happy with my “old” assignments Provided limited opportunities for reflection on concepts Did not incorporate the interpretation of data As a result key ideas were being missed Builds on concepts introduced in the courses Students can sift through the data Take ownership of the data Identify different ways to represent data Students learn Excel Many have limited practice with it Also wanted to get assignments located higher on Bloom’s Taxonomy They really like the default line plot Excel generates http://slideplayer.com/slide/8041596/

Courses with Excel Assignments Why? Intro. to Environmental Science Global Climate Change Environmental Hydrology Water Treatment and Lab Methods Oceanography Physical Geology Intro. to Soil Science Agriculture and the Environment Applicable to jobs Students have little exposure to making graphs Students have little exposure to organize data Students are able to take ownership of the assignment

Examples of Homework Assignments

Examples of Graphs for Assignments Excel techniques learned: Independent y-axes, values in reverse order, column spacing, picking the ‘right’ graph

Student Graphs Graphs at end of the semester Early Graphs Many students improved on Axes labels Axes location Chart type Formatting Chart design Excel confidence Amount of improvement varied with each student

Things to consider What are the objectives? For me, problem solving ‘signature skills’ Wanted more critical thinking How long are the assignments? And how frequent Number of students What is the ‘right answer’ For me it was coming to a logical answer Need to provide enough introduction to Excel Many students have limited experience using Excel

Data set to brush-up on Excel Skills Pick one of the data sets loaded to webpage and produce a graph similar to the one below Alternatively, you may work on crafting your assignment idea if familiar with these graph types

Bubble Chart Allows three data sets to be compared at once X-variable Y-variable “bubble” variable Alternative graph type if you feel comfortable on the other graph types

Sites to Access Data https://www.usgs.gov/science/mission-areas/water-resources?qt-mission_areas_l2_landing_page_ta=0#qt-mission_areas_l2_landing_page_ta http://www.geomapapp.org/

Your Turn How can you utilize Excel in your courses? Outline an idea Learning objectives? What are the data? Important graph(s)? After forming your idea, start working on the assignment or deliverables Will reconvene towards the end of the mini-session to share ideas