Spreadsheets in Education

The following videos were created for students who want to learn how to use a Google Sheets for a report, science project, or presentation. See the Excel Tutorials page if you want to use Excel instead. If you are brand new to spreadsheets, start with the introduction. The other videos demonstrate how to create specific types of charts.

1. Introduction to Spreadsheets (Google Sheets version) (3:20)

2. Choosing a Chart Type (1:54)

Transcript

So you've made a hypothesis and finished an experiment? Exciting! So now how do you share your results?

Scientists love graphs. But which kind of graph is best for your experiment? ...

3. Creating a Line Chart in Google Sheets (3:31)

Sample File in Google Sheets
(Go to File > Make a Copy to save a copy that you can edit)

Transcript

A line chart shows a trend of how values change over time.

To set up your data, you'll list out the Date or Time values, which will be shown across the X axis of your chart. ...

4. Creating a Column or Bar Chart in Google Sheets (4:28)

Sample File in Google Sheets
(Go to File > Make a Copy to save a copy that you can edit)

Transcript

Column charts are great for making comparisons between different categories.

To set up your data, you'll write your category type--I looked at different cities and measured how much rain and snow falls in each one, so my category would be cities. ...

5. Creating an XY Scatter Plot in Google Sheets (5:14)

Sample File in Google Sheets
(Go to File > Make a Copy to save a copy that you can edit)

Transcript

A scatter graph can help you visualize how two numerical values are related.

One dot represents both measurements for a single instance. ...

6. Creating a Pie Chart in Google Sheets (4:29)

Sample File in Google Sheets
(Go to File > Make a Copy to save a copy that you can edit)

Transcript

A pie chart shows how different categories make up a whole.

For example, you could survey students about their favorite animal, and make a pie graph of the results. ...

Additional Resources

  • Getting Started with Sheets at gsuite.google.com - This is a good overview of google sheets, covering stuff like how to open, save, print, etc.