Earthworm Excel Activity

This activity will guide you through a mock science lab. In this
lab you will be looking at the growth of 3 earthworms. The length
of the earthworms will be measured over several days and the
data is provided below. You have been asked to make an excel
worksheet and perform some simple calculations to show the
average growth rate. A graph showing the change in the length
against the number of days must also be produced.

1. Right click(control-click) on the

Sheet 1 Worksheet Tab at the
bottom left and select Rename. Type "Data"
and enter.

2. Right click on the Sheet 2 Worksheet

Tab and select Rename. Type
"Graph" and enter.

3. Right click on the sheet 3 worksheet

tab and select delete.

4. Make sure you go back to the data

worksheet before proceeding to the next
step.

5. Go to the File menu and save your document

"excel_earthworm(your initials)" into your
ed422 folder on your mass storage device.
Ensure the .xls extension is on the file.

6. Select cell A1 (it will have a blue box around

it when it is highlighted), then select font
size 16, type "Earthworm Lab" Then,
highlight cells A1 - O1. In the Format
toolbar, choose the “merge and center”
button. If the format toolbar isn’t visible,
select View from the top menu, toolbars,
then ensure formatting is checked.
7. Select cell A2.Select font Size 14. Type the
word "Length (cm)" Highlight cells A2 - O2
and then use the merge and center cells
icon as described in step 6.

8. Select A3, select font size 12 and enter "Age

in Days"

9. Select Column A and then use the format

Column Auto-fit selection to have all the
words become visible in the column
(Optional . .may not work).

10.Select cell B3, type an 8 in B3 and 10 in C3

then use the AutoFill option to cell O3 by
choosing the fill handle, a small box in the
bottom right
hand side fo
the cell,
after
selecting
both B3 &
C3(the selector tool changes to a (+). To
add, drag from the bottom right). While
these cells are still selected, center the
numbers and make them bold. They should
be numbered from 8 to 34, cells B3 – O3.

11. Click in cell A4 - Type "Earthworm

#1" and use the AutoFill to enter
"Earthworm #2" and "Earthworm #3"
into cells A5 and A6. (same idea:
select A4, change the cursor to a +,
and drag down)

12. Enter the word "Average" into cell A7.

13. Click on the Column A Label to select the

entire column and bold and center. If this
causes problems with the title and length,
highlight from “age in days” until average,
bold and center the selected cells in the
format toolbar (or you could simply re-center
 the first two rows).

14. Save your document now so you don’t

loose the format when entering data.

15. Fill the data from the chart below into the
corresponding cells in your graph. Ensure
you are entering the data from B4 – O4, etc.

Length (cm)
Age 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34
in
Days

Worm .4 .4 .5 .5 .6 .6 .6 .7 .8 1 1 1 1 1
1 4 8 4 8 2 5 8 8 9 .03 .21 .38 .50 .71

Worm .4 .4 .5 .5 .6 .6 .6 .7 .9 1 1 1 1 1
2 5 9 4 8 2 6 9 8 0 .05 .20 .36 .45 .65

Worm .4 .4 .5 .5 .6 .6 .6 .8 .9 1 1 1 1 1
3 5 8 5 9 3 4 8 9 5 .08 .26 .39 .52 .76

16. Select B4,B5, & B6 then click the

down arrow to the right of the Σ
button on the standard toolbar.
This will give your several
calculation options; choose
Average.

17. Ensure that the average in

column B7 is a decimal place,
0.4466666667. Then select the cell B7
and use the
“Decreasing Decimal”
button on the
 formatting toolbar. Click until you only
have two decimal places, then make
the average bold. It should be 0.45.

18. Use the AutoFill function to copy the

function into the remaining cells C7 -
O7. Then select B7 – O7, center all the
averages and make them bold.

19. Save your document

Making your Graph:

1. You are going to plot Average Length vs.
Number of Days
2. To start select the Average Length data in
cells B7 - O7 then hold the apple key and
select B3-O3 (to get age in days selected).
Once you see both rows are selected
(ensure that you only have the two,

noncontiguous rows selected,

row 3 and row 7!), click the
Chart Wizard button on the
standard toolbar (again, if the
toolbar is not there, go to
View/toolbars/standard)
3. Choose the XY Scatter chart type and keep
it on the top Chart sub-type. Click next
4. Click Next again
5. This will take you to the chart options
screen. Select the Titles tab on the top. In
the Chart Title Box enter a descriptive
title appropriate for the assignment
INCLUDE your NAME (for example: Jeff’s
Earthworm Chart).
6. For the Value (x) enter "Number of Days"
7. For the Value (Y) axis enter "Length in
Centimeters".
8. Click on the Gridlines tab and add major x
gridlines. The Major gridlines for (Y) should
also be checked.
9. Select the Legend tab and uncheck the
show legend box
10.Select Next
11.For the Chart Location, select under "As
object in" and click on "Graph"
12.Click Finish to create the chart.
13.Grab a corner handle and increase the size
of the chart to fill as much of ONE page as
possible. Ensure the graph is on the first
page under the “Graph” tab.
14.Note that the x axis starts at zero by
default. This is not appropriate for this
chart. To
change
this,
double
click exactly on the x-axis on the x axis of
the graph. This will bring up a dialog box
with several options to format the x-axis.
Select the Scale tab and change the
minimum value to 8 and the maximum
value to 34. Click ok. The number on your
x-asis should now be from 8 to 33, with
somre room left for 34.
15.Double click in the gray area of the chart,
be sure to place your curser in a gray area
without lines. In the “Fill” area section
 select color “no fill”. If you are having
students print their graphs, this save a
bunch on ink cartridges.
16.Double click on one of the points in the
graph. Select a color first, then select a
line pattern (to thr right of “dashed”),
increase the weight of the default to 4.
17.This one is for the science/math majors:
Instead of adding a pattern line
you can add an trendline.
a. Right click on a point in the
graph and select add
trendline
b. Select Linear and hit okay
c. Double click on the
trendline
d. .Change the style to dashed
(approximate line)
e. Click the options menu
(still in the Format Trendline Box) and
select "display equation on chart"
f. Drag equation just left of the line so
that it can be read
18.Save your document
19.Submit it to WebCT through assignments