I. Objectives

The student will be able to use spreadsheet skills to keep track of spending.

II. Materials

Computer lab, spreadsheet program, wiki page with instructions (including what fields are required on the spreadsheet), internet sites for research.

III. Activities

A. Introduction

If you could decorate your own room ANY WAY YOU WANTED TO, how would you do it? Imagine that you had $5,000 to spend to totally decorate your dream bedroom! That's a lot of money to decorate with! There are a few items that you must have in your room: a bed (matress, boxspring, pillows, sheets, comforter or quilt, and headboard); a dresser, a nightstand, and a lamp. Anything in your room must be purchased, you can't decorate with items that you already have or have taken from other parts of your house.

B. Transition

Today, we are going to do just that. We'll have $5,000 to spend (well, in our imaginations, anyway), and we'll keep track of our spending on a spreadsheet.

C. Sequence of Activities

Start by making your spreadsheet. As you can see by looking at the wiki, you need to have enough fields to include the name of the item you are purchasing, the item number, the color or size of your choice, as well as the cost of the object, including sales tax and/or shipping costs. The list of prices should be totaled at the bottom of your spreadsheet. Make sure you have a title at the top, as well as your name.

As you "buy" things from the web, you'll enter them into your spreadsheet. (Don't go over your budget!) All right! Start looking at the internet and "shop away!" Save your spreadsheet as Dream Room - name

Create a wiki page for your Dream Room (first name, last initial - Dream Room; ex. Cynthia W - Dream Room), write a short description of what your dream room will look like, and keep track of your purchases on the wiki page. When your spreadsheet is finished, you will convert it to a .pdf file and upload it to the wiki.

IV. Closure

When you're done, please save your spreadsheet with Dream Room and your name as the title. Save your file to the appropriate place. For Mrs. Washburn's class, save on the Projects drive in your class folder.

V. Evaluation of Students

Evaluation will be based on the student's ability to apply knowledge of the spreadsheet. The teacher will take special note of whether or not all the instructions about field names were followed, and the method used to keep track of total spending.

Part II - the floorplan