Post - The fifth

Using Spreadsheets to solve mathematical problems

When faced with a lengthy wordy problem for example what lengths of fencing should Mr Mcgreggor use to gain the maximum area for his vegetable patch with 15 m of fencing, a traditional pen and paper method would involve children undertaking a vast amount of calculations in order to solve it. They would have to calculate all the various combinations individually using number bonds to fifteen.

A Spreadsheet such as Excel allows a pupils to put in formulas and copy them and therefore the programme works out all of the calculations. Some people would suggest that this makes pupils lazy and gets them out of doing sums. However; I would argue that the pupils still need to know what cells and what sums to use in order to make the formula correct. In this way they are still going through the process of doing the sums but the computer is working out the answer. I would suggest that in using a spreadsheet the pupils become much more aware of the process involved to get an answer rather that fixating on just getting the right answer.

They can use a spreadsheet to solve calculations quickly and effectively and allows them to solve problems and reach conclusions more quickly than if they had to use traditional methods. This then allows them to come to a generalisable solution (introducing basic algebra) and they can then adapt their worksheet to solve similar problems.