Graphing with Spreadsheets

Graphing with Spreadsheets

Let’s get started by examining a bar graph created by Josh. He is comparing the cost of three different items and trying to decide which one he can add to his Christmas wish list. Look at the colorful bar graph. Doesn't it help you see very quickly which toy is the most expensive?

It's your turn to make a bar graph. Think of a question you would like to ask your classmates. Look at the box of questions on this page if you need a few ideas. Allison gave each of her friends a Tootsie Pop Chew, and then generated a graph showing how many chews it took before they swallowed the Tootsie Roll in the middle.

Ask 5 different classmates your question, and then enter your data on the graphing tool provided by the NCES Web site’s CREATE A GRAPH. Select Bar Graph from the pull down menu labeled "Select Type of Graph" and click GO! Follow the instructions and print your very own colorful 3-D bar graph today! That’s not all. You can select the image file type of your bar graph for copying and pasting into other documents.

How many times do you blow your nose in a day?
How many times do you brush your teeth every day?
How many chews does it take before you can swallow a tootsie roll?
How many licks do you think it would take to get to the bubble gum in the middle of a Blow Pop?
How many times do you think you can burp in 5 minutes? (Don’t try it, just guess!)
What size shoe do you wear?
How many times in the last month have you picked your nose and then discovered that you were being watched?
How many times in one week of PE do you smell under your arms to see if you need deodorant?
How many times in the last month have you run into something and checked to see if anyone saw you?
How many times do you talk to yourself in a day?
How many times in the last week did you tell a joke and no one laughed but you?

(Questions submitted by Allison, Amanda and Kyle, from North Carolina.)

Graphing with Spreadsheets: The Big Picture

With most spreadsheet tools, preparing a graph or chart from spreadsheet data usually involves 3 important steps:

Enter, then highlight the data in your spreadsheet.
Select a menu option that allows you to MAKE A CHART or GRAPH.
Choose the most appropriate graph or chart from a gallery of options, then dress it up with a title, different colors, labels, fonts, styles, and sizes.

Visit the Math Forum and, with the help of your teacher, look for the 3 steps listed above. See how quick and easy it can be to make bar graphs, pie charts, pictograms and other graphs from spreadsheet data. Which class period has the highest number of students?

Here is another graphing challenge. A group of students decided to conduct a poll of their friends’ favorite sports. They entered the data on a spreadsheet and made a bar graph. Link to The Franklin Institute Online and look for their spreadsheet and colorful bar graph. Don’t bother to read the paragraphs. Instead, study the graphics and see if you can answer the following questions.

You like to play Squash, too! Whose class is the squash player in?
What is the most favorite sport and the least favorite sport?
What question can you create that would have "Hockey" for the answer?
Whose class likes tennis the least?
Do more kids like tennis and baseball or hockey and basketball?
Would you choose a different graph? Would a pie chart work for this information? Why or why not?

Challenge: Show how much you know with Catawba County’s fantastic collection of online puzzles, quizzes and crosswords.

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