A Tool for Mathematics Spreadsheets are an often-overlooked tool that can be very useful for mathematics. This demonstration will show five applications, and the innovative mathematics teacher will find many more. The examples represented here are Representing Data , Algebraic Operations , Equations , Linear Regression , and Curve Fitting . The simplest use of spreadsheets is to represent data in tabular and graphic forms.
Students collect data and enter it into a table.
They may then select from a variety of different forms of graphs, including picture, bar, column, pie, and line. These representations aid the student in constructing and internal and external representation of the context, and in reasoning with the data and drawing conclusions. The following is a sample line graph constructed to compare average monthly temperatures in five cities. When entering a formula, the data in other cells may be referenced by name A1, A2, etc. A cell referenced by A4 is considered relative, and in the next row, it would use B4.