Page 2 - Computers and Technology for Social Studies

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Activity 1

An African Climate

World History Practice Activity

Technology Overview Would you rather pore over row after row of num-
bers, or see information organized into a colorful graph? Most people would prefer a
visual representation of data when they just need basic information. Technology
makes it easy to communicate complex data in a way that is easy to understand. For
example, spreadsheet programs, which can calculate huge amounts of data, have
features that allow you to display numerical data as graphs, charts, and tables. In this
activity, you will use a spreadsheet program to create a graph.
Content Overview In much of North America, people are accustomed to
a regular change of seasons, with summer occurring in June, July, and August, fol-
lowed by autumn, winter, and spring. But in the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons
are reversed. In this activity, you will study the climate of a specific region in the
Southern Hemisphere, the area around Kimberley, South Africa. You will create a
chart and a graph showing the average monthly rainfall amounts there.

TERMS

Chart A graphic that allows you to compare and con- Legend A key that identifies each of the data series
trast data in a visual format. in a chart.
Data series For most charts, a data series is the Merge To combine selected cells into a single cell.
information in a worksheet column. If you select Number format A format that controls how numeri-
multiple columns of data for a chart, you’ll create cal data is displayed, including the use of commas,
multiple data series. Each data series is then repre- dollar signs (or other symbols), and the number of
sented by its own color bar, line, or column. decimal places.
Embedded chart A chart placed as an object within Plot To position data points on a graph.
a worksheet.
Portrait orientation The default position for dis-
Fill handle Dragging this handle, located in the playing and printing data horizontally across the
lower-right corner of the active cell, will copy cell shorter side of a page.
contents, formatting, or a formula to adjacent cells.
Range Two or more cells in a worksheet. The cells
Font A complete set of characters in a specific face, may be adjacent or nonadjacent.
style, and size.
Series A list of sequential numbers, dates, times,
Font size The height of an uppercase letter in a or text.
font set.
X-axis The horizontal scale of a chart on which cate-
Font style The slant and weight of characters in a gories are plotted.
font set.
Y-axis The vertical scale of a chart on which the
Landscape orientation Rotating worksheet data value of each category is plotted.
so it displays and prints horizontally across the
longer side of a page.

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