Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference

In this session participants will learn how to use Google Sheets' Pivot Table feature, a powerful data analysis tool. Pivot Tables offer the ability to quickly summarize and cross-tabulate large datasets without the need for a relational database, programming knowledge, or any aggregate functions. Instead, they offer a simple drag-and-drop interface that allow the user to instantly create customized reports. After a brief discussion about the importance and application of effective data analysis, the first part of this session will be a crash course in the basics of Pivot Tables: setting up the spreadsheet, creating a pivot table, and learning how to use the interface to analyze data. The second part of this session will encourage participants, working in small teams, to answer a series of questions about a large, sample dataset. In order to answer the questions, participants must apply what they have learned by adjusting columns, rows, and filters of their Pivot Tables. As the teams move along and answer questions successfully, the questions will get harder. This active learning session has been highly successful at conferences and in professional development courses in our district and we have found time and time again that teachers learn best by doing. (Presenter(s): Todd MacDonald, Technology Integration Coordinator, Hillsborough Township Public Schools (NJ), and Joel Handler)