Spreadsheets in Science

These photocopiable activities for using spreadsheets in Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 Science classes are accompanied by disks containing the templates of the spreadsheets. The material is intended for the use of teachers of Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 Science. It consists of 28 activities in which spreadsheets enhance the pupil's knowledge of science. Each activity has teacher's notes with one or more photocopiable worksheets for the pupil. The worksheets give varying amounts of support for the pupil, and individual activities are also graded, allowing differentiation within the class and progression through the Key Stages. To help pupils who have difficulty constructing spreadsheets from scratch, the book is supplied with partially completed templates on disk, formatted for the most popular spreadsheet programs or as CSV files from other programs. Pupils can fill in and manipulate the data. The spreadsheet activities are suitable for pupils in Key Stages 3 and 4 and cover Physics, Chemistry and Biology. They involve classification, data manipulation and modelling.
The teacher's notes and introductory material give advice for teachers who are themselves unfamiliar with spreadsheets as well as giving a clear indication of the intended outcomes in Science and IT. There is also advice on such things as coping with a shortage of computers, the range of spreadsheet packages and devised templates. This work was written to help pupils learn science, but it is also intended to help teachers fulfil their National Curriculum obligation to develop pupils' IT skills through all subjects.