Interactive Excel Spreadsheets:

Constructing Visualization Tools to Enhance Your

Learner-centered Math and Science Classroom

Scott A. Sinex
Department of Physical Sciences and Engineering
Prince Georges Community College
http://academic.pgcc.edu/~ssinex

Workshop presented at

Powering Up with Technology Conference

Prince Georges County Public Schools
Northwestern High School
18 November 2006

Interactive Excel Spreadsheets:

Constructing Visualization Tools to Enhance Your
Learner-centered Math and Science Classroom

This is a quick guide or introduction to developing interactive Excel spreadsheets

or Excelets (aka simulations). It assumes that you have a basic knowledge of
working with Excel.
The objectives of this guide are four-fold:
1.

to introduce you to the Forms Toolbar and a number of the tools available;

2.

to create a just add data interactive Excel spreadsheet;

3.
to create a dynamic graph with manipulable variables interactive Excel
spreadsheet, and;
4.

to resize the Excelets to fit for full screen viewing on your computer.

Interactive Excel Spreadsheets: Constructing Visualization Tools

Getting the Forms Toolbar

Lets get the forms toolbar. Go to View on the menu bar and select Toolbars and
then select Forms (a check mark will appear when you click on it).

The toolbar will then appear as shown below. You may have to drag it to dock it
with the toolbars at the top of the screen.

In Excel, if you move the cursor over each tool it will show you its name.
Constructing a simple just add data spreadsheet The M&M Color Comparison
Open up a blank Excel worksheet. Set up two columns,
one with the M&M colors and the second with the number
of each color (you can make these up here). Label the
columns color and number. Leave row 1 empty for a title.
Click on the cell A2 (color) and highlight all the data as
shown here.

Interactive Excel Spreadsheets: Constructing Visualization Tools

Now click on the chart wizard icon or go to Insert on the menu bar and select
Chart

When the Chart Wizard menu pops up,

select the Chart Type: as Column and use
the clustered column that is highlighted
black already (default).

Click the Finish button and the chart

should appear as illustrated below.

If you click on one of the columns or bars on the graph it will highlight them all and
then click again and it should just highlight the one you are clicking on. Now double
click and you can set the colors to match the M&Ms.

Interactive Excel Spreadsheets: Constructing Visualization Tools

Now lets add a total to the number column, so we can make the comparison to the
official color percentages from:
http://ww2.mms.com/us/about/products/milkchocolate/
Click on the cell B9 and then click on the AutoSum icon on the toolbar.
You should get the screen
shot to the right.

If you hit the Enter key, you will get the

total number of M&Ms in your bag.
Go to the M&Ms website given above and
get the percentage of each color in a bag of
milk chocolate M&Ms. Place them in column
D. In column C, we will calculate the
number of each color that in theory should have been in your bag.
Here is a screen shot to the left with the
official values and the set up for the
calculation using the percentage from the
M&M website.
The number of each color in theory is
calculated by taking the actual total
number of M&Ms in your bag ($B$9) and
then multiplying by the official percent of
that color (D3) divided by 100 to get a
fraction. The total is from the SUM
calculation.

Once you have the formula in the cell, click the mouse and a number will appear.
Drag this formula down to complete the column.
Interactive Excel Spreadsheets: Constructing Visualization Tools

Now we need to add the new column of data to the bar graph. Click on the bar
graph to highlight it. You should see that the data plotted is also highlighted.
Place the cursor on the lower right corner
of the blue box as shown on the screen shot
to the left. The box will darken and the
style of the cursor changes as shown. Drag
the box to include the data in column C.
This will now add a new set of bars on the
bar graph. This is the comparison of your
data to the official M&M color percentages.
You will need to change the colors as
before. The right bar of each pair on the
graph will be the value based on the M&M
website. You may want to change the
pattern to help distinguish them from your
actual data or wait to see what is next.

If you clear the number column (C3-C8) but leave the rest of the worksheet intact,
data can be added by your students to get an instant comparison. I would suggest
moving the graph to cover columns C and D to hide them from view.

Interactive Excel Spreadsheets: Constructing Visualization Tools

Would you like to hold off the comparison until all the data for each color was
added and viewed on the graph? We can do this using a Check Box from the Forms
Toolbar in combination with logical statements.
Click the Check Box icon and then go to
F16 on the worksheet and click. This will
deliver a Check Box. Right click on the
Check Box, select Edit Text to label the
check box.
Right chick on the Check Box, select
Format Control to get the Format
Control pop-up menu, and then select the
Control tab. Click in the box of the Cell
Link: and then click on F16. Click the OK
button.
Now if you click on the check box it will
return TRUE when checked and FALSE when unchecked in cell F16.
Now go to cell C3 and change the formula by adding the yellow highlighted part
shown below:
=IF($F$16=TRUE,$B$9*D3/100,0)
Drag this formula down the column to C8. Now when you click on the checkbox it
will use the original formula if true or return a zero if false. The zero in this
column will drop the bars so that they are not viewable on the bar graph. This will
allow students to turn the comparison values on and off and remind them that the
right bar in each pair is the M&M website data.
You still need to clean up things and label, but I will let you do that later. To
remove the gridlines on the worksheet, click on the Toggle Grid icon on the Forms
Toolbar.
Use this spreadsheet to test the following hypotheses:
h
How do different bags of the same size of M&M Milk Chocolate candies
compare?
Interactive Excel Spreadsheets: Constructing Visualization Tools

Do the bags come close to the official numbers from the M&M website?

Do you see a difference between small bags and large bags of M&Ms?

Constructing a dynamic graph with manipulable variables The Equation of a

Straight Line
Now lets create an interactive Excel spreadsheet that graphs a straight line
where we can adjust the slope and y-intercept and see how the graph responds.
The slope and y-intercept will be our manipulable variables. We will also display the
y = x line for comparison. Open a new worksheet and add the items shown on the
screen shot below.

Drag the formula in cell B4 down the column. Now if you go to cell F2 you can
change the slope or to cell I2 to change the intercept. The data using the formula
in column B will respond.
Now highlight the data in
columns A and b and then go to
the Chart Wizard and set up a
xy scatter plot using the
connect with lines sub-type.
Press the Finish button.
Now you have a graph that will
respond to changes in the slope
(m) and y-intercept (b). Since
Interactive Excel Spreadsheets: Constructing Visualization Tools

the autoscale feature on the axes is the default, the graph rescales automatically,
so the line may not appear to change. This can be disabled by clicking on each axis
and deselecting autoscale. Or we can add the y = x line for comparison.
Add the data in column C and then click on the graph and drag the blue box as
before to get the y = x line to appear on the graph.

Now when you change the slope and intercept the line changes with respect to the
y = x line and effects of the change are easier to visualize on the graph.
Lets put sliders, or scroll bars as they are called in Excel, on the slope and
intercept variables. Go to the Forms Toolbar and click on the Scroll Bar icon. Click
on an empty area of the worksheet to insert or
drop the scroll bar. You will get the big
vertical scroll bar as shown in the screen shot
to the right. Put your cursor on the lower
right corner (its style will change as shown)
and click and drag upward until it changes to
horizontal; resize it to look good. Right click
the horizontal one and copy and then paste to
get another one. Move them to a position two
cells below the slope and intercept cells (see
the next screen shot).

Interactive Excel Spreadsheets: Constructing Visualization Tools

Right click on the scroll bar for the slope and select Format Control and the
Control tab. Link the scroll to cell F3 and leave the settings the same. Repeat for
the intercept linking to cell I3. You can then move the sliders up to cover the cells
where they are linked (but not yet).

A disadvantage of the scroll bar (and the spinner too) is that it can only be
changed by positive whole numbers, so we need to use formulas to generate
decimals and negative values. In the following cells, place the formulas as shown:
In cell F2
In cell I2
=F3/10-5
=I3/10-5
What the formula above accomplishes:
Slope:
Intercept:
-5 to +5 by 0.1
-5 to +5 by 0.1

Interactive Excel Spreadsheets: Constructing Visualization Tools

If you want to turn the y = x line off and on, get a check box as before and link it
to cell F24. Change the formula in cell C4 to =IF($F$24=TRUE,A4,0) and drag it
down the column. To hide the line (actually just lay it on the x-axis): click on the
pink line or the pink markers on the graph to change its color to black and the
marker to none.
Again there is some clean up left to you, such as add a title and label the axes on
the graph. Write some what if questions to get your students exploring with this
Excelet.
h

If the m = 2 and b = 0, how does the line change compared to y = x line?

If the m = 1 and b = 2, how does the line change compared to y = x line?

What are the values of m and b for the y = x line?

What if m = - 1 and b = 0, how does the line compare to the y = x line?

How do you generate a line parallel to the y = x line?

Students can actually discover slope and y-intercept. Excelets have the potential
to evolve your classroom from chalk-and-talk to click-and-think.

Sizing your Excelets to fit the computer screen

If you go to View on the menu bar and select Zoom
Then the Zoom menu will popup and you can size things so
that all areas are in the view
of your students.

Interactive Excel Spreadsheets: Constructing Visualization Tools

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For more interactivity with how to instructions (as pdf files) and many pre-built
examples of interactive Excel spreadsheets or Excelets to download, see the:

Developers Guide to Excelets

at
http://academic.pgcc.edu/~ssinex/excelets
Take the interactive features tour to see the possibilities that Excel has to offer.
All these Excelets are done by computational methods (formulas in cells) with no
programming required. Many of the Excelets have guided-inquiry based activities
with them.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or problems you may
encounter.
e-mail: ssinex@pgcc.edu
The author wishes to thank Barbara Gage of Prince Georges Community College and
Susan Ragan of the Maryland Virtual High School.

Interactive Excel Spreadsheets: Constructing Visualization Tools

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