Spreadsheets

• Discuss how would you adapt it for your grade level and/or discipline area? In other words, how would you change the lesson to fit your students’ needs?

The M&M "food for thought" spreadsheet developed by Mr. Huckins was designed for his fourth grade students and intended to introduce the concept of computer spreadsheets through the use of candy. He integrated their knowledge of computers and slowly began to introduce the new material. Students then had to predict how many of each color M&M's would be in the bag and enter the data into a spreadsheet. They will then share their findings with other classmates and create a class wide spreadsheet of all the data collected.

I am currently interested in teaching the second grade and several modifications would have to be made in order to make this a successful lesson for my students. First, i would eliminate the use of computers for this activity. Instead, i would use large pieces of butcher paper and have them create their own graph using markers and crayons. Students would have to use their own knowledge of graphs to create an appropriate presentation of information. They would still needs to make predictions of the number of M&M's in the bag, and the number of red M&M's, blue M&M's, etc. Then, they would collect the actual data and show their findings on the graph. Students will then compare their findings with their predictions and the findings of their classmates. Once all the data has been recorded, the entire class will work together to create a "class graph" that will contain every students' findings.