[Year 12 IPM] Suggested spreadsheet functions to teach for ITA U4O1

[Mark Kelly]

A free unofficial, personal guide about how much spreadsheeting kids 
need to know for ITA U4O1...

- At a minimum: arithmetic functions, handling percentages, SUM, AVERAGE 
etc.

- How to switch to and from formula view (CTRL+~)

- Add on cell formatting, named cells/ranges and use of multiple 
worksheets.

- Why 'constants' (such as tax rates) should be stored in named cells 
rather than hardwired into formulas.

- They *need* to know VLOOKUP, and simple IF statements. Hint: nested 
IFs are nasty and usually unnecessary if you can use either AND() or 
OR() or CHOOSE() or VLOOKUP properly... See 
http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au/la/it/ipmnotes/howto/nestedif.htm for a 
challenge.

- AND() OR() are _very_ handy!

- Cell protection, to stop dumb users deleting formulas

- Would also suggest value-added functions like SUMIF and COUNTIF

For the ambitious kids...

- Drop-down lists may be a nice touch to enforce validation.
- Conditional formatting is a lovely icing on the cake.
- Macros/buttons may be handy to cater for naive users.

Don't panic about things like pivot tables!

Note: The main skills are actually beyond creating the spreadsheet: it's 
analysis, design, testing and evaluating that really add up in terms of 
marks  :-)

Note: this post is just a personal suggestion... it's not gospel!

Anything I've forgotten or screwed up?

-- 
Mark Kelly
Manager - Information Systems
McKinnon Secondary College
McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
Direct line / Voicemail: 8520 9085
School Phone +613 8520 9000 << new number!
School Fax   +613 9578 9253

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