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| |image=Itinsecondaryscience5.png | | |image=Itinsecondaryscience5.png |
| |topic=spreadsheets, data handling, graphing, calculation | | |topic=spreadsheets, data handling, graphing, calculation |
| |description=A {{tooltag|spreadsheet}} may have found itself in school by accident, but in no time at all, its {{tooltag|calculating}} and {{tooltag|graph}} drawing abilities found it a secure place. In science teaching, a spreadsheet is a ready-made results-table that quickly produces a graph. Graphs are a key tool for analysing data and a spreadsheet makes them with ease. In fact, spreadsheets can produce an astounding range of graphs. Our role as science teachers may be to encourage pupils to communicate effectively using graphs. | | |description= |
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| The ability of spreadsheets to organise, record and analyse data fulfils aspects of exploring science. If you had a table of students’ personal data, you could sort it into order of shoe size, or work out the average size of the class. You could draw a bar chart to see how the shoe sizes vary across the class. Or draw a <em>scattergraph</em> to see if the sizes vary with height. You might also search for those with black hair and see if they have an eye colour in common. Students can similarly use a spreadsheet to sort and search for patterns in the properties of elements in the periodic table
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| It may be clear already that students using a spreadsheet in these ways have to work scientifically. They would need to define what they want to find out, collect data, organise it and analyse it. A case can be put that the use of a spreadsheet belongs, and probably deserves a place in science teaching.
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