Need inspiration - database and/or spreadsheet lesson for GCSE ICT

[Hulababy]

My brain is dead today and I just have no inspiration or ideas left.

I have a Y11 GCSE ICT class and the next topic I need to do (to improve understanding and practical capability) is Data Handling. So I need to spend between now and mid January doing Spreadsheet (Excel) and Database (Access) stuff with them.

I know I should be able to knock these ou quickly, but I really am struggling to think of something interesting and exciting for them to do.

I know this isn't parenting related at all - and that I should be doing lots of Internet searches to find it instead...but I have't the patience this afternoon

Any ideas Mumsnetters???

what about something like cataloguing their CD collections, or films or football teams? Or is that not the sort of thing?

how about music based? would that work?

Yes it is - just need to thing of ways of making 3 part plans (with starter task of 10 minutes or so; main activity of about 30 minutes; and conclusion/plenary task of about 10 minutes). Have them for 2 lessons tomorrow - and every Tuesday.

oops sorry SM didn't see you there

I was thinking of artists by genre and/or period, tracks, publishers, singles, albums, publishing dates etc

yeah that's the sort of thing i was thinking of

then they could produce graphs and pie charts by genre

Yes - I reckon music based - wonder if there are are data files online somewhere of recent albums or gigs or record asales. I'll look at databases first - need data with different data types. Something they can then search. sprt and report on. And maybe use the data from that later int he spreadsheet - costings or sales, etc.

Wonder if they could manage some form of stock count for a music shop??? More like a mini project - use small data file of records for "testing"????

More searching to do I guess! Thanks

Like the idea of the sorts/searches mentioned there too. Hmm... I'll get thinking! Now need to persuade DD to have a nap instead of jumping about the place!

and after they have done it in excel...make them import it into access...hurrah..jobs agoodun

they could use it as a datasource for a website as well!

Fab, cheers

Now looking for a list of suitable data - hoping google will bring up something suitable now.

Try emailing one of the music download sites and asking if they can send you their download data (which tracks, how often etc etc.) Napster show their top 10 downloads so I assume the data is there but, obviously, might be in the wrong format or they may be unwilling to let you have it.

Cheers everyone. Gave me enough to get my brain in gear. Done my block plan now:

Catalogue family?s CD collection (in case of theft, etc.)

EG field names (and data types ? in lesson 2 get pupil?s to choose these, don?t give them these)
CD Album Title (Alphanumeric)
Artist(s) (alphanumeric)
Record Company (alphanumeric)
Published Date (date)
Playing time (numeric or alphanumeric ? get them to think!)
Number of tracks (numeric)
Number of Discs (numeric)
Genre (have a list to select from ? Look up)
Who?s disc is it? (Look up list)

Week 1
Lesson 1 ? Discuss it all ? questionnaires/data capture form ? to record family?s CDs ? or a selection of; need about 25 for next lessons.
Lesson 2 ? Setting up the database ? data types and lengths ? extension: creating it as a Form to make data entry easier

Week 2
Lesson 3 ? Entering data (not sure how can get round this one even though low level skill; can?t find data files on line and would like them to use collected data)
Lesson 4 ? Sorting and Basic searching

Week 3
Lesson 5 ? More complex searching; reporting
Lesson 6 ? as lesson 5

Week 4
Lesson 7 ? importing into Excel; changing layout etc to be more suitable
Lesson 8 ? sorting on Excel and printing in different ways

Week 5
Lesson 9 ? graphing and reporting (jncliuding saving and importing into Word)
Lesson 10 (Last lesson) ? as lesson 9

Holidays

Week 6
Lesson 11 ? Mailmerge form Excel and/or access into Word
Lesson 12 - as Lesson 11

Will start typing into proper lesson by lesson plans soon. HMI visit doesn't hit these class luckily but may still ask to see the plans for that week's lesson - think it is week 3???

Neer thought of that Soupdragon; may be worth a try. They can only say No.

sounds great!

Well, it covers pretty much everythig they need to know for their January exam - playing catch up as this class had problems last year and missed a lot of the work they should have done with their teacher. They are fine with Word Processing and Powerpoint (or presentation) And Internet/E-mail is fine too. These are main two problem areas - spreadsheets and databases.

Shouldn't worry about entering data as low-skill level - if they're only doing 25 odd - they can use it as part of their testing, and maybe think about using import masks etc. on the field?

that would be INPUT masks not import masks!

That's kind of the way I was thinking when doing the notes for my planning I am learning quikly that you can pretty much find a way of writing anything as a suitable "objective" with a bit of thinking