Through your discussion, you will create the different costs. Students can calculate the total costs using the spreadsheet. Students can open the file area.xls. Students can drag across the different rectangles in the walkway to get the area . The numbers for the area are shown in the upper left corner of the spreadsheet.
Students can use the numbers to multiply the dimensions of the rectangle.
This dragging technique can also be used to measure the length of the borders. Another option is for the students to use the SUM function to calculate the rows or columns of numbers. This is possible because each cell in the walkway and the border has a 1 in it. Students can now enter the information from their cells template into the spreadsheet. Their final spreadsheet should include the unit headings and the data.