Using Excel for Quantitative Skill Development Benjamin J

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

Workshop Objectives • 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 http: //bigcommunity. net/big_news/organizational-gains-from-a-technology-driven-big-data-strategy/

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/apas 02. html https: //mashable. com/2017/03/01/clippy-chromeextension-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 http: //slideplayer. com/slide/8041596/

Courses with Excel Assignments • 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 Why? • 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

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? qtmission_areas_l 2_landing_page_ta=0#qtmission_areas_l 2_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