Authentic Science: Google Spreadsheets

Google Spreadsheets is a useful tool for science and math teachers to engage students in collaborative data collections and analyses. Longstanding programs such as GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) foster student-directed data collections with online data reporting and sharing. After collection, participating classes make use of extended data sets for use in directed analyses with tools such as spreadsheets. Teachers who don't want to get involved in larger programs like GLOBE can quickly set up similar data collection projects in their own school. With Google Spreadsheets, for example, students in three middle schools could collaborate on a single Google Spreadsheet documenting bags of garbage produced by each of their families in a given week. Using demographic variables (e.g., number of family members, recycling practices, food sources, etc.), teachers can ask students to identify factors that contribute to or reduce garbage production. Students can create simple charts from data and export as image files for use in presentations.