53302_Hatfield_lesson2_comprehensive assignment

Spreadsheets and databases are becoming more and more popular in the classrooms. Teachers are using them as early as Kindergarden to give the students a head start on how to use them. One of the websites I found that discussed spreadsheets and databases in the classroom was http://askeric.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Science/Process_Skills/SPS0023.html
A teacher has put together a lesson plan in order to teach her students how to use spreadsheets and databases. Her lesson pertained to science. She either took the students outside and had them collect leaves or had them bring them from home. The teacher had the students use index cards as the database in which the students would write down identifying fields for the database which would include: size, shape, and color. From this lesson the teacher concluded that by teaching the students how to use databases they could use the information further by making spreadsheets. The teacher also discusses other way students can use spreadsheets and/or databases in the classroom.
Spreadsheets and databases can be used in so many different way. The spreadsheet can perform various functions on the data entered. Math formulas, graphs, and charts can all be created or performed in spreadsheets. A database is a way of storing and analyzing varing amounts of information. Even though spreadsheets and databases look similar in format, they are used for very different reasons. They both are used to collect information and that information is arranged in columns and rows.
I never knew spreadsheets or databases could be used in so many different ways. I remember being in elementary and middle school and it seems like the only time we worked with spreadsheets and databases was when we were learning about them in the lesson for the day. After that, I don't remember using them often. Now it seems teachers are using them in every subject in school. I knew you would use them in math, but I would have never thought that you could use them in social studies and science. It makes since to use them in lessons though. From one of the articles I had to read for this lesson a teacher was talking about how she uses spreadsheets in her math lessons and her students love it. It makes learning more fun and enjoyable for the students.
I am not a teacher but I am a special education teacher assistant. I have not done any work using spreadsheets, but I do use datatbases in order to document what my two 6th grade students do during each day so that I can be sure not to go over the same thing twice. I am sure that when I do become an actual teacher I will be using spreadsheets and databases as well as teaching my students lessons involving them.