Spreadsheets, Mathematics, Science, and Statistics Education

Quite a Lot of What You always wanted to know

This page tries to collect some information about spreadsheets with an emphasis on mathematics and statistics education.

If you have some more information which you think should be offered through this page please send information to Erich Neuwirth (email: erich.neuwirth@univie.ac.at).

Currently we have the following topics:

• Spreadsheets in Education
  • Recommended Books and Journals
  • Papers about Spreadsheets in Scientific Journals and Books
  • Example Spreadsheets and Projects (mostly Excel 5.0)
  • Further Resources for Spreadsheets in Education on the Internet
• General Resources for Spreadsheets on the Web
  • Web Documents explaining Spreadsheet Concepts
  • Support Information, Utility Programs, and Add-Ins
• Mathematical Learning Resources on the Internet

Spreadsheets in Education

Recommended Books and Journals

Books

The Active Modeler - Mathematical Modeling with Microsoft Excel

Erich Neuwirth and Deane Arganbright
Brooks/Cole 2004

Spreadsheets in Science and Engieneering

Gordon Filby
Springer Verlag 1998
with contributions by W.J. Orvis, E. Neuwirth, J.P. LeRoux, R.D. O'Brien,
S. Leharne, F.M. Julian, G. Shaw, A.A. Gorni, J. Walkenbach

Mathematical Applications of Electronic Spreadsheets

Deane Arganbright
McGraw-Hill 1985

Mathematics with Excel

David Sjöstrand
Chartwell-Bratt 1994

Spreadsheet Physics

Charles Misner & Patrick Cooney
Addison-Wesley 1991

Introductory Statistics With Spreadsheets

Donald Piele
Addison-Wesley 1990

Tabellenkalkulation im Mathematikunterricht

Günther Dopfer & Rolf Reimer
Klett-Verlag 1995 (in German)

Practical Handbook of Spreadsheet Curves and Geometric Constructions

Deane Arganbright
CRC Press1995

Mathematik Arbeitsbuch 3 (In German)

Laub-Hruby et al.
hpt-Verlag, Vienna, 1991
Mathematics textbook for grade 7, includes a chapter by Erich Neuwirth on using spreadsheets in mathematics as part of the standard curriculum

Mathematik Arbeitsbuch 4 (In German)

Laub-Hruby et al.
hpt-Verlag, Vienna, 1992
Mathematics textbook for grade 8, includes a chapter by Erich Neuwirth on using spreadsheets in mathematics as part of the standard curriculum

Simply Spreadsheets

Roger Keeling & Senga Whiteman
KW Publications 1990
Spreadsheet examples for grades 3 to 8

Numerical Techniques in Finance

Simon Benninga
MIT Press (1989)
The book uses Lotus as a vehicle for doing financial modeling (pro formas, options, portfolio, bonds)

Financial Modeling

Simon Benninga
MIT Press (1998)
Financial Modeling presents important models in finance and shows how they can be solved numerically and/or simulated using Excel
More info

Spreadsheet Modeling & Decision Analysis:
A Practical Introduction to Management Science

Cliff T. Ragsdale
Course Technology, Inc., 1995
This books shows how to use optimization and simulation techniques from Operations Research with Excel

Excel for Chemists

Joseph Billo
John Wiley 1997

Data Analysis with Microsoft Excel

Kenneth N. Berk and Patrick Carey
Duxbury Press 1998
Using Excel to solve everyday statistical problems. Includes an addin with some additional statistical procedures not readily available in Excel.

The Complete Guide To Option Pricing Formulas

Espen Gaarder Haug
McGraw-Hill 1997
The book includes examples and a floppy disk with Excel spreadsheets, as well as visual basic for applications code for almost any option pricing formula used in practice.
More information about this book

Journals

Spreadsheets in Education

Online Journal with background information,
didactical considerations, and projects on different levels

Spreadsheet User

John Callender, Robert Jackson, editors
Mathematics Centre, School of Engineering IT
Sheffield Hallam University

Der Mathematikunterricht: Diskrete Mathematik und Tabellenkalkulation,

Special issue of the journal,
Jahrgang 47, Heft 3, Juni 2001

Visualizing Correlation with Spreadsheet

Erich Neuwirth
Teaching Statistics, 12, 1990.
Republished in: The Best of Teaching Statistics, 1994

Tabellenkalkulation und Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung -
Experimentelle und Strukturelle Überlegungen (in German)

Erich Neuwirth
In Mittermeir, Kofler und Steinberger Informatik in der Schule -- Informatik für die Schule S. 172-184, 1992

Spreadsheet structures as a model for proving combinatorial identities

Erich Neuwirth
Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Education, 14(3), 1995, p. 419-434
Available in full text as Adobe Acrobat (pdf) file

Visualizing structural and formal relationships with spreadsheets

Erich Neuwirth
In DiSessa et al.: The Design of Computational Media to Support Exploratory Learning
Springer-Verlag, 1995
Available in full text as Adobe Acrobat (pdf) file

Tabellenkalkulation als alternative Darstellungsform für formale Strukturen

Erich Neuwirth
In H.C. Reichel: Computereinsatz im Mathematikunterricht (hpt-Verlag, 1995)

Spreadsheets: Helpful for Understanding Mathematical Structures

Erich Neuwirth
The Computing Teacher. March 1996, Vol. 89(3)

Technology-Motivated Teaching of Advanced Topics in Discrete Mathematics

Sergei Abramovich
Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Education, 14(3), 1995, p. 391-418

Solving Equations Within Spreadsheet

Ilya Levin & Sergei Abramovich
Computers in Mathematics Teaching, Vol. 11(3/4), 1992, pp. 337-345

Matrix Model of Logical Simulator Within Spreadsheet

Ilya Levin
International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education, Vol. 30(4), 1993, pp. 216-223

Microcomputer-Based Discovering and Testing of Combinatorial Identities

Sergei Abramovich & Ilya Levin
Journal of Computers in Mathematics & Science Teaching, 13(2), 1994, pp. 223-246

Behavioral Simulation of an Arithmetic Unit Using the Spreadsheet

Ilya Levin
International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education,31, 1994, pp. 334-341

Spreadsheet in Teaching and Learning Topics in Calculus

Sergei Abramovich & Ilya Levin
International Journal of Mathematics in Science and Technology Education, Vol. 25(2), 1994, pp. 105-126

The State Machine Paradigm and The Spreadsheet Learning Environment

Ilya Levin
In: A. J. Smith (ed.) Engineering Education, Increasing Students Participation
Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, England, 1994, pp. 351-355.

Applications of Spreadsheets in Calclulus

Robert Smith
Proceedings of the First Asian Technology Conference in Mathematics, 1995

Applications of Spreadsheets in Precalculus and Calclulus

Robert Smith
Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Technology and Education, 1994

Spreadsheets in the Mathematics Classroom

Robert Smith
Pre-coference Proceedings of the IFIP WG 3.1/3.5 Open Conference, 1993

Teaching Precalculus with a Spreadsheet

Robert Smith
Proceedings of the Fifth Annual International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics, Addison-Wesley, 1992

Spreadsheets as a Mathematical Tool

Robert Smith
Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 3, 131-149, 1992

Spreadsheets at Joint Meetings in Baltimore

Robert Smith
UME Trends, May 1992

Spreadsheets as Generators of New Meanings in Middle School Algebra.

Abramovich, Sergei & Nabors,Wanda. (1997).
In D.L.Johnson, C.D.Maddux & L. Liu (eds.), Using technology in the classroom (pp. 13-25).
New York: The Haworth Press. (Co-author W. Nabors).

Exploring Prime Numbers within a Spreadsheet.

Abramovich, Sergei (1996).
International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology 27(5), p. 639-645.

Technology for Deciding the Convergence of Series

Abramovich, Sergei
The Special 25th Anniversary Issue of the International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 26(3), pp. 347-366.

Teaching Mathematics through Spreadsheet-Oriented Problem Solving

Abramovich, Sergei, & Brown, Gary
The Mathematics Educator, 6(2), pp. 34-40.

The following papaer have been published in a special issue of a German mathematics education journal:

Der Mathematikunterricht: Diskrete Mathematik und Tabellenkalkulation,

Special issue of the journal,
Jahrgang 47, Heft 3, Juni 2001

Diskrete Mathematik - Neue Impulse für den Mathematikunterricht

Silke Thies

Tabellenkalkulation - ein schrittweise erweiterbares didaktisches Werkzeug

Hans-Georg Weigand

Diskrete Modellbildung und Tabellenkalkulation

Herbert Henning, Mike Keune

Tabellenkalkulation und diskrete Mathematik in der Sekundarstufe 1 - Darstellen und Interpretieren als zentrale Aktivitäten

Gerald Wittmann

Kombinatorik, Rekursion und Tabellenkalkulation

Erich Neuwirth

Das "Spiel des Lebens"

Christian Brühne

Punkteverteilung beim PC-Spiel Solitär

Johannes Blum

• Population pyramids, extrapolation of the age structure of populations in different countries
  Demonstrating animation techniques in Excel
• A spreadsheet model about financing retirement payments through social security
  (you need Microsoft Excel 5.0 or higher to run this model)
  New version from April 14, 1997
• Realtime Fourier sound synthesis
• Some statistical examples using Microsoft Excel
• Calculating seats from votes for the Austrian Parliament (in German)
  Contains an Excel 5.0 sheet
• Wheels by Frank Harris, superimposed rotations and symmetry
• Excel addins for simulation, statistics, and probability by Sam Savage
• Animating alorithms in Excel (University of Helsinki)
• Workshop Physics Tools for Excel from Dickinson College
  The WPtools, a set of Workshop Physics Excel Tools, have been developed so that students can select icons placed on a custom tool bar for creating scatter plots from selected data and for performing linear or polynomial fits to the data.
• Introduction to Math and Spreadsheets
• Science Spreadsheets
  (from the Center of Excellence for Science and Mathematics Education, University of Tennessee)
• Correlation Visualized, using Formula One/Net

• MathsNet, educational resources including spreadsheets and Logo.
• ASSUME, Association of Statistics Specialists Using Microsoft Excel, Mailing list and resources

• Using array formulas in Excel, white paper by Bob Umlas
• Introduction to VBA (in German) by Josef Broukal
  A first course on how to used Visual Basic for Applications to simplify the use of Excel.
• OzGrid Excel tutorials and addins
• Excel tips, tricks and links by Thomas Igel (in German)

• Usenet News Group: comp.apps.spreadsheets
• Frequently asked Questions (FAQ) from comp.apps.spreadsheets
  FAQ mirror in Europe
• Mailing list for Excel users: EXCEL-G
  Subscription by sending mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com
  Your message should contain just one line:
  subscribe excel-g yourname
• Mailing list for Excel developers: EXCEL-L
  Subscription by sending mail to listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com
  Your message should contain just one line:
  subscribe excel-l yourname
• Woody's Office Watch - the cool FREE weekly email newsletter about Microsoft Office
• Dr. Excel, technical tips, a newsletter ..
• PopTools, an extended mathematical and statistical toolkit for Excel
• Spreadsheetworld, Tools and courses for technical applications of spreadsheets
• Applix Anyware, a client-server spreadsheet in JAVA
• Microsoft Excel Support Web Page
• Excel Information, the Excel Help Page
• Support for Microsoft Office prodcts with emphasis on Excel and Word
• Woody's Office Power Pack, Enhancements for Word and Excel
• Spreadsheet Utility Software
• XLUG, Excel Users Group at MIT
• xlSTAT, Statistical tools for Excel
• Statistical functions and Monte Carlo tools by Roger Myerson
• Analyse-It for Microsoft Excel
  Statistical procedures and functions for Excel
• Macro Systems, lots of Excel Addins and futher information
• Baarns Excel Utilities
• xlCBT, creating interactive course material with Excel
• Excel and VBA, Internet Software Guide for Engineers
• OMDI Math tools for Excel, Enhanced tools for interpolation, matrix manipulation ...
• Excel->HTML conversion utility
• John Walkenbach's spreadsheet page, lots of tips and utilities
• Stephen Bullen's Excel Page, lots of sophisticated mini-Excel apps to demonstrate advanced techniques
• Another Excel->HTML converter
• Spreadsheet Tools and Producers
• Solver (enriched versions) by Frontline Systems, makers of the Excel solver
• Cutting Edge Software, makers of QuickSheet
  (a spreadsheet program for the 3Com PalmPilot which cooperates with Excel)
• XLStatistics Home Page Statistics with Excel. Worksheets, demos, support material and lots of information
• Lumenaut - A statistical and decision analysis software add-in for Excel
  featuring parametric and non-parametric statistics, decision trees and sensitivity analysis.
• Excel Business Tools
  Purpose built Excel templates and add-ins for financial analysis and business decision making

• TalmPage, Technology Assisted Learning In Mathematics
• Alexander's Mathematik Seite, (German) Learning Math with Excel

Author: Erich Neuwirth (email: erich.neuwirth@univie.ac.at).
Last Change: 20010710

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