CAST Workshop 2006 Interactive Excel Spreadsheets: A Computational and Conceptual Learning Tool for Mathematics and Science Scott A. Sinex Department of Physical Sciences and Engineering Prince George’s Community College Presented at the Computation and Science for Teachers Workshop held at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Pittsburgh, PA on 19-23 June 2006 academic.pgcc.edu/~ssinex/excelets

Why Excel? Ready off-the-shelf software Found in the work-place Found on home computers too Easy to use by students Can it be an interactive learning tool? (no marcos or VBA programming, just computation via formulas)

...as a tool in math and science Great for handling, graphing, and analyzing data Easy transforming of data such as taking the log Regression and goodness-of-fit So a great tool for mathematical modeling of data and presenting graphs Pre-set calculations & graphs – just add data Using Excel for... Scientific Data

… a mathematical model Cookies stack

The modeling process…

...so now to Excelets! Excelets are interactive Excel spreadsheets A “Javaless” applet! A simulation of a mathematical model or an illustration of a simple concept A tool for higher-order thinking and illustrating science process and a tool that is easy to construct!!!!!

So let’s take a tour of the interactive features available in Excel Start tour ! Click on links at the bottom of the next five slides to get the interactive spreadsheets

Interactive features

tails heads Flipping pennies CAST Workshop 2006 academic.pgcc.edu/~ssinex/excelets

Find it in Regression

Derivative

Created by Charlotte Trout Circuits

Now let’s construct a simple Excelet! We will explore the equation of a straight line, y = mx +b. So let’s go into Excel Tutorial for a quadratic equation – click here

As a learning tool... Active engagement of students Numerical experimentation Derive the ideal mathematical model “What if” scenarios Science processes predictions graphical interpretation conclusions random and systematic error (ideal to real) See Investigating Types of Errors Model Simulation science excelets

Resource list for mathematics and science The “How to” resources... Developer's Guide to Excelets: Dynamic and Interactive Visualization with "Javaless" Applets or Interactive Excel Spreadsheets <http://academic.pgcc.edu/~ssinex/excelets> Tutorial, instructions, and a variety of interactive Excel spreadsheet examples Resource list for mathematics and science

More info... Scott Sinex – ssinex@pgcc.edu See course webpages and publications http://academic.pgcc.edu/~ssinex Webpages embedded in PowerPoint – get LiveWeb (http://skp.mvps.org/liveweb.htm)