Enter a heading for the substance and column headings, put Vol farther left to make it automatically the x-axis when the graph is made
Demonstrate how to automatically adjust the column width to match the contents
Enter data (only volume and mass)
Use decimal place buttons to adjust data to show correct number of significant figures
Set up calculation of density for the first row, adjust to correct number of significant figures, then copy down for other rows
Type in row headers for average, range, ± amount, result, and % error; these calculations will take place in the cells immediately below the density values
Calculate the above values (=AVERAGE(range of cells)), (=MAX(range)-MIN(range)), (=range/2), result must be typed so that the ± amount is rounded to one digit and the average is rounded to the same digit, (=(&plumn; amount)/average)
Use the CTRL key to do multiple selections to make it possible to put border around only the cells with data or headings in them
Demonstrate copy & paste within MS Excel to make a data table for the second data set; just enter new Vol and Mass data and change the substance heading
Demonstrate copy & paste to MS Word; each table should have its own label, such as Table 1 or Table 2 and students should refer to them this way in their report
Graphical Analysis
Select just the data for volume and mass (not the headings and not the density values)
Go to Insert-->Chart; select XY Scatterplot (Scatter with points only)
Go through the buttons on the ribbon under Chart Tools--Layout to add a chart title, axis titles, turn off the legend, and add vertical gridlines.
Write an informative title (e.g., Density of Aluminum), and label the axes including the unit
Select the entire graph by clicking on the white area outside the grid and then use the font selectors on the top menu bar to change the font size to at least 14 pt (otherwise the text will be too small when the graph is pasted into Word) re-adjust heading and axis labels by clicking on each one in turn to make them bold
Right-click on a data point and select Add Trendline
In the trendline dialog box ensure that linear is selected. At the bottom there are some options. Check the boxes to set the intercept equal to zero, Display Equation on Chart, Display R-squared value on chart; Click OK
Move the equation box to the upper-right corner; if desired, change the 'y' to an m and the 'x' to a V
The x-axis is volume and the y-axis is mass; what then is the meaning of the slope? Often the value of the slope will be a more accurate value for the density for a substance than the average of the measurements (least-squares analysis is better at cancelling errors)
The fact that the graph is a straight line emphasizes the point that the relationship between mass and volume is a direct proportion; you can say both that the ratio of mass to volume is constant for different sample sizes and that as one quantity increases the other increases in proportion.
To copy the whole graph to MS Word, select it by clicking on an open white area outside the grid then use the copy command; each graph should have its own label, such as Figure 1 or Figure 2 and students should refer to them this way in their report