Excel Tutorial #8 - Nutrition Facts

Good Morning!! Congratulations on completing Excel Assignment #8 and gaining a better understanding of Nutrition Facts and how we can ensure a healthier, happier and longer life!! Before moving forward, please complete this blog post by responding to the following questions

1. Describe the assignment you just completed to someone unfamiliar with our class.
2. Describe some of the tools you used to complete this excel assignment?  Feel free to look back at the assignment description.  How did using these tools make the assignment easier and/or harder for you?
3. Discuss some of the nutrition facts you learned while completing this assignment.  In addition, be sure to include your responses to the following questions as well!
1. Are you over or under the government's daily allowance in each of the 4 categories that you graphed?
2. What does your calorie intake compared to the government's recommendation suggest about your diet?
3. Cholesterol leads to heart disease and is the second leading cause of death in the United States.  What does you cholesterol intake compared to the governments suggested intake say about your risk of heart disease?
4. The intake of fat leads to not only being overweight, but it leads to other diseases such as Diabetes and heart disease.  What does your intake of fat compared to that of the government's suggested intake tell you about your risk for one of these conditions?

Thank you for your hard work!!

Mr. Rubin

Excel Tutorial #7 - Car Buying Project

The thought of buying and driving your first car sounds great doesn't it!!  That is until you realize all of the additional costs that nobody ever mentions - insurance, gas, registration, down-payments, etc. etc.  We didn't even discuss the warranties new cars come with and the risks of owning a used car - maintenance, repairs, etc ... and let's not even talk about what happens if you get a ticket, or worse, in an accident!

Hopefully the assignment you just completed helped you realize some of these additional costs so that you can make an educated decision when the day comes.  To finish off this weeks assignment, please post an image of your final spreadsheet for one of the 3 cars you chose above.  After posting that image, please respond to the following questions:

1. What is your outlook on owning a car?  Are you interested in owning a car?  Which of the 3 cars that you researched would you choose and why?  Economical? Flashy? What would be the purpose of you owning a car and do you think this car would help you achieve that goal?
2. Describe some of the tools you used to complete this excel assignment?  Feel free to look back at the assignment description.  How did using these tools make the assignment easier and/or harder for you?
3. How are you feeling about using excel?  Are you getting more comfortable with it?  What do you like or not like about Microsoft Excel?  Do you feel like you are understanding how to write formulas?  What are some ways you can envision using it for your own personal projects, needs or school assignments?
4. We are close to the end of our Excel unit.  Is there anything else you are interested to learn in excel?  

Thank you for your thoughtful feedback!  Remember, our blogs are important as it is your public portfolio of work you are capable of completing.  A great marketable tool for you!

Microsoft Excel Assignment #6 - Calculating Your Yearly Budget

Good Morning!  Today we will be working on creating a spreadsheet like the one above.  It will help you calculate what a yearly budget might look like if you choose to live here in the bay area!  While shocking to see the cost of living, it is also important to prepare for future success!

For your blog today, please post your final project similar to what I posted above.  While you also answered these questions on the spreadsheet itself, I want you to take a second to respond to them here on your blog also.  Start your blog by talking about the assignment, the skills you learned with Excel and what the goal/purpose of the assignment was in relation to preparing for future academic, career and life success.

Then, please respond to the following questions:

1. At $14/hr, how much money in debt are you at the end of the year?
2. What is the rate of pay required to end up with approximately 0 total savings at the end of the year?
3. What is the required rate of pay so that you end up with $500 in savings at the end of the year?
4. Something would happen if you got a roommate and shared the cost of rent evenly between you both.  Explain how that would affect your expenses and savings.
5. Besides increasing your rate of pay, what else could you do to increase your total income per year?
6. What rate of pay must you achieve in order for you to save $40,000 per year given all of your expenses?
7. Write a formula in cell A31 that will multiply this new rate of pay (cell H21) by 2080 (how many hours someone works in one year).
8. Which, if any, of the column heading numbers do you believe are wrong - is rent to high?  Do you believe you could save on entertainment expenses?  Discuss where you see room for saving or areas where costs may be higher in relation to the lifestyle you want to lead.
9. Let’s assume that you will not be a professional athlete, a successful musician, a supermodel, or that you simply will marry an extremely rich person.  Let’s also assume that like most Americans you will have to get a real job to survive in this world.  Based on the answer that you got for question 7 above, what level of education must you obtain in order to earn that much money by the time you are approximately 35 years old?  Take a look at the chart below.

Please take the time to respond to each of the questions thoughtfully and thoroughly (complete sentences). Remember, you need to explain to your audience what you learned so complete sentences are incredibly helpful. Also keep in mind we are talking about your future so a little extra time invested now may go a long way in the future!

Microsoft Excel Assignment #5 - Calculating Your GPA

Good Morning and congratulations on completing your 5th MS Excel Tutorial.  Today you had the opportunity to set up a table using formulas that will easily calculate your GPA for you.  That is a handy tool to have as grades fluctuate constantly and it is important for you (as you consider what future academic options you have) to maintain that 3.0 GPA.  This blog post is simple as you already answered the questions on your excel document but I would like you to repost them here.  The questions you need to address are as follows:

• Do you plan to attend college after high school?
• What is the lowest GPA you can have to be eligible for the Cal State University system?
• What is the lowest GPA you can have to be eligible for the UC system?
• How does your GPA for this quarter to date compare to these minimum requirements?
• Given the information you just discovered about your GPA, are you on track to accomplish your goal for after high school or here's a simpler question - are you on track to be eligible for our 3.0 3rd quarter incentive trip?

Thanks for your response and hard work!!  

SF State Reflection

 

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday!  What an amazing experience yesterday - to be able to get off our High School campus and have the opportunity to visit a college/university just 30 minutes from home.  This morning, it would be a shame not to take a moment to reflect on this experience.  Below are a series of questions I hope you will take the time to think about and reflect on to personally benefit yourself.  Take your time - this is due at the end of the period:

• Introduce the activity you were involved in yesterday - what did you physically do?  Include the name of college visited and day/date visited
• What was your overall impression, or feeling, about this college?
• Can you imagine yourself attending this college, or one like it? Why or why not?
• What did you like best about this college?
• What did you like least?
• What were some important details you learned from being on the trip yesterday?
• What would you like to know more about?
• How will your visit yesterday affect your future plans? Will you apply to this college (or one like it)? Why or why not?
• How has the college visit affected your decision about going to college and ideas about what you need or want from a post-secondary education?
• What is your interest level in getting a 4 year college degree on a scale of 1 to 5 (1= not interested; 5 = absolutely will get that degree).  Did yesterday's trip affect your commitment level to this?
• What do you personally need to do (be specific) to go to a college like the one you visited yesterday?

Although it seems like a different topic, please finish your post today by discussing the class scheduled you plan to sign up for next year.  While most of you will be in Academy English, US History, MultiMedia and Chemistry, what courses do you also plan to enroll in and how will those help you with ensuring you are eligible to attend the 4 year university of your choice?  What can you do to ensure you are getting the best grades possible?

Thanks for your thorough and thoughtful response!!  I look forward to reviewing it!

Microsoft Excel Assignment #3

Congratulations on completing Microsoft Excel Assignment #3! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I know that creating tables and inputting data isn't always the most entertaining thing but I love when we are able to take that data and demonstrate something interesting and appealing to our audience. That is exactly what this assignment did as you learned how to add a chart to your excel table. Using this feature could really wow your teacher or boss when it comes to completing any project you are assigned!

For today's blog please respond to the following questions:

• Describe 3 new tools that you learned how to use having completed this tutorial. Feel free to browse through the assignment handout once more and pick out the tools that you feel may have been most meaningful for you. 
• What do you think is most powerful about adding a graph and/or chart to an excel data sheet? In other words, even if it is simply portraying data that's already on the document, why do you think it is helpful to have a visual like that? If you don't think it's valuable, feel free to explain that as well.
• Describe the steps you had to take to add a graph and/or chart to your document. Was it easy? Hard? Had you ever done this before using Microsoft Office?
• Can you think of at least one situation where you would add a graph/chart to a document you are creating? What purpose would it serve for you? What class or task would you most likely be working on?
• Anything else you would like to add about your experience with this assignment?

Thanks for your input. I look forward to reading your response and seeing your final excel document!

Microsoft Excel Assignment #2

Good Morning and Congratulations on Completing your 2nd Microsoft Excel Assignment.  Today we are going to post your completed assignment on our blog and, once again, reflect on the skills learned.  Over the past two lessons, a lot of information has been provided and I really want you to understand and reflect on the tools used so that you are comfortable using them when you have your own projects to design.

For today's blog, please post an image of your completed assignment (similar to the one above) and respond to the following questions:

1. Describe 1 class you have (besides mine) where you might use an excel data chart to track information?  Describe a personal situation for you or someone you know (perhaps family member) where they might use Microsoft Excel to track something in their personal life.  What would be tracked and why would it be helpful.
2. Take a moment to discuss some of the tools you learned in Excel as part of this second assignment. Similar to our last blog, pick 3 skills you just learned that you think would be helpful the next time you are asked to use Excel.  Feel free to refer back to the assignment and review all of the tools you learned and then give a brief description of what they were and how they could help you.

Thanks so much for a thoughtful response.  At minimum, the above should come to about 6-8 sentences.

Microsoft Excel Assignment #1

Good Morning and Congratulations on Completing your First Microsoft Excel Assignment.  Today we are going to post your completed assignment on our blog and reflect on the skills learned.  While I know that the work you completed today was simply a tutorial with all information provided, it is important to understand and reflect on the tools used so that you are comfortable with all of them moving forward (as new skills will build on the ones you have just learned).

For today's blog, please post an image of your completed assignment and respond to the following questions:

1. What did you know about Microsoft Excel before beginning this assignment and what is your initial impression having just starting using Microsoft Excel in this class?
2. Take a moment to discuss some of the tools you learned in Excel as part of this first assignment.  I am not looking for a novel, but perhaps 3 skills you just learned that you think would be helpful the next time you are asked to use Excel.
3. What is Excel most commonly used for?  What is its purpose?  Take a moment to do a little personal research using Google and learn about the various uses for Microsoft Excel in business (and even personal life) today.

Thanks so much for a thoughtful response.  At minimum, the above should come to about 6-8 sentences.

Happy New Year!!

Good Morning and Welcome Back!!

It is hard to believe that it has been over two weeks since we have been together!  I bet you missed me :)  In any case, I wanted to start off the morning with a quick recap of your break!  How was it? What did you do?  What was the highlight?  What is one reason you are excited to be back at school?

As a second part to today's post, as you know around the world as the New Year kicks off, people take an opportunity to examine themselves, their lifestyle and goals and are able to focus on how they would like to make a difference starting with yourself in the new year!  Did you make a New Years Resolution?  What are you committed to doing in your life in 2017 and how will it help you be happier, more successful, a better person, etc.  On a secondary level perhaps, what are some goals that you have set for yourself for the second half of the 2016-2017 school year?  Perhaps bad habits you want to break, things you want to do better, goals you want to achieve, etc!  It's a new year, be realistic but dream big :)

Lets kick off the year right with a thorough thoughtful response addressing all parts of the prompt! Thank you and Happy New Year! :)