Any individual looking to be successful in today’s computerized age needs to know how to use the program Excel. It just so happens that Excel is a great program for mathematics as well. The statistical analysis that can be done by Excel allows a student to interpret data without the challenging computations that can happen when there is a large amount of data. There is a cluster of common core standards that can be mastered by knowing how to use the statistical analysis aspect of Excel: HSS-ID.C.7, HSS-ID.C.8, and HSS-ID.C.9.

In order for these standards to be mastered, there can be a statistical project that can be done. This project could be the culmination of a section on linear projections and best fit trends, which are both aspects of statistics. The students would be presented with a task of data analysis, and this data can be whatever they choose. However, there needs to be a great deal of data that is collected in order to maximize the technological aspect. The ability to choose what they want to gather as data will help to better engage the students in the activity.

After the data has been collected, the students will need to work with Excel to create a presentation of their data. In order to do this, the students will need to enter the data, create a scatter plot, form the trend line, and finally formulate the equation and Pearson coefficient. Lastly, the students would need to use this data to create a presentation to turn in that would need to include what their project consisted of, what the data results were, and what these results mean. This project would not only allow the students to show their knowledge of statistics, but also give them tools that are required in almost every workplace in society.