Spreadsheets

Alright so I checked out "Graphing Our Throw Away Materials" because although I am not very good at recycling I can at least say that I recycle my soda cans & bottles & pizza boxes and I am always a little distressed when I take out the garbage at just how much of it there is. So needless to say I was curious. This spreadsheet model was intended to show relationships and was created by Karen Wiedenfeld for her 6th grade class in Kuna. Ms. Wiedenfeld hoped to help her students understand the need for conservation and its' effect on our planet. She especially hoped to teach them about personal responsibility. The project involved students tracking the things they threw away for 3 days using palm pilots so I am very curious where those came from. Her lesson plan says they can be acquired from the district technology coordinator but I am curious about that whole process. In adapting this project to my particular grade level and subject matter, I think my hope would be to do a sort of pen pal project with a French class and compare our results with theirs. I think that would have the potential to be a very interesting comparison.