7th Grade Spreadsheets and Graphs
What is a spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet allows you to show information in rows and columns. Spreadsheets are normally used to show numeric information and they're good at doing mathematical calculations for you. You use spreadsheets to make graphs, but most spreadsheets in the real world should not be made into graphs.
We're going to spend some time looking at The Fast Food Nutrition Fact Explorer. You can also find several other nutrition sites here. We're going to focus on calories, fat and sodium content in fast food. Complete this activity.
After you learn how to use the site, I'd like you to find information about the same item at 3 different restaurants (cheeseburger, turkey sub, pepperoni pizza, etc.) You'll compare the calories, fat and sodium of each item at all 3 restaurants. Then you'll enter all of your data in an Excel spreadsheet and make 3 graphs.
Before we had access to the internet, every time we wanted to buy or sell a car, we would have to call a bank to give us what's called a blue book value for a used car.
Now there are a few websites that provide information, and that makes it much easier and faster!
There are 3 values for us to consider:
Used Car Retail Value - the amount you could expect to pay for a used car at a car dealership
Trade-in Value - the amount you could expect to get from a car dealership if you trade in your used car
Private Party Value - the amount you could expect to pay for a used car if you buy it from an ad in the newspaper.
Complete this Car Value Activity. When you're finished, you'll make a graph in XP Excel comparing the Stratus, Accord, and Camry.
This activity has two parts
1-When you get a job, you'll find out quickly that your paychecks will not include as much money as you think they should. You'll use a spreadsheet to figure out why it's not easy to figure out how much your paycheck will be each pay period.
2-Hopefully your job will have benefits. That means you may get some paid time off, like sick time and vacation time. This spreadsheet will help us keep track of how much paid time off we have available.
