Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Computing
ComputingIT skills20 min★★ difficulty

Spreadsheets: formulas and charts

Spreadsheets turn numbers into answers. Scientists, shop owners and families running a budget all use them.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Creativity and digital literacy: Undertake creative projects that involve selecting, using and combining multiple applications to achieve challenging goals, including collecting and analysing data

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Undertake creative projects that involve selecting, using and combining multiple applications to achieve challenging goals, including collecting and analysing data

Key learning points

  • • Cells
  • • Formulas
  • • SUM and AVERAGE
  • • Choosing a chart

This lesson at a glance

  • 20 minutes
  • 18 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

undertakecreativeprojectsinvolveselecting

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 18 · Intro6%
1

Introduction

Part 1 of 18

Spreadsheets: formulas and charts illustrationVisual introduction

Picture this

Spreadsheets: formulas and charts

Spreadsheets turn numbers into answers. Scientists, shop owners and families running a budget all use them.

In a nutshell

Undertake creative projects that involve selecting, using and combining multiple applications to achieve challenging goals, including collecting and analysing data

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 18

Before we start

What you already know

You can add, find an average and draw a bar chart in maths.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 18

Key words

Words you'll need today

cell
One box in a spreadsheet, named by column and row, like B3.
formula
A calculation that starts with =, like =B2+B3.
function
A built-in formula, like =SUM(B2:B8) or =AVERAGE(B2:B8).
range
A group of cells, like B2:B8.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 18

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1: Cells and formulas

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 18

Learn

Cells

Columns have letters and rows have numbers, so the cell in column B, row 3 is B3. Put labels in the top row and data underneath.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 18

Learn

Formulas

Type =B2+B3 and the spreadsheet adds them. Change B2 and the answer updates by itself. That's why spreadsheets beat a calculator.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 18

Quick check

Cell C4 is in:

8

Reset break

Part 8 of 18

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
9

Quick check

Part 9 of 18

Quick check

Every formula starts with:

10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 18

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2: Functions and charts

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 18

Learn

SUM and AVERAGE

=SUM(B2:B8) adds a whole column. =AVERAGE(B2:B8) finds the mean. =MAX and =MIN find the highest and lowest. Try it with a week of your pocket money or screen time.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 18

Learn

Choosing a chart

Select the data and insert a chart. Use a bar chart to compare categories, a line graph for change over time, and a pie chart for parts of a whole. Always add a title and axis labels.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 18

Quick check

Which adds B2 to B8?

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 18

Quick check

Best chart for temperature over a week:

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 18

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • A formula must start with =, or the spreadsheet treats it as text.
  • A line graph is for change over time, not for comparing separate things.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 18

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Mastery quiz

Part 17 of 18

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Spreadsheets: formulas and charts

3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. If you change a number used in a formula, the answer:

  2. 2. =AVERAGE(B2:B8) finds the:

  3. 3. Every chart needs:

18

Lesson round-up

Part 18 of 18

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Article

How a supermarket checkout knows the price

When a barcode is scanned, the checkout does not store the price itself. It sends the barcode number to a database and reads back a record: product name, price, whether it needs an age check. The record is the single place the price lives, so changing one row changes every till in the shop at once.

Problems come from bad data, not bad scanners. If two products share a barcode, or a price update reaches the shop overnight but the till holds an old copy in its cache, customers are charged the wrong amount. Shops check this with test transactions: scan a known item, expect a known price, record what actually happened.

Good systems also log every scan. If a customer complains, the log shows exactly which record was used and when.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Write in your own words what the checkout sends and what it receives back.
  2. Explain one way bad data could cause a wrong price, and how logging helps find it.
  3. Design a test table with four tests for a new checkout, with expected and actual results.

  • Reading and notes

    Reading

    Read the lesson text again and note the key terms and how each one is used, in your own words — as you would for revision.

    Half a page of notes

  • Extended writing

    Writing

    Explain a real system that uses this idea — how it works, where it can go wrong, and how you would make it safer or better.

    250–350 words

  • Algorithm on paper

    Diagram

    Write your steps out as pseudocode or a flowchart before you type anything, then photograph it.

    1 flowchart or 10 lines

  • Code write-up

    Writing

    Copy your code in, then explain underneath what each part does and what you had to fix.

    Code + 5 sentences

  • Test table

    Working out

    Make a test table: what you tried, what you expected, what actually happened.

    4–6 tests

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 18 · Introduction

How this is going

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    Undertake creative projects that involve selecting, using and combining multiple applications to achieve challenging goals, including collecting and analysing data

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