Calculating percentages is particularly suitable for integrating basic information technology education into mathematics lessons. In this subject, the PC can be used in many ways as an exercise and work medium.
- In the Internet one finds numerous exercises for the percentage calculation, which z.T. can be done online.
- With the help of a spreadsheet, different types of percentage charts can be created effortlessly.
- If students have mastered the use of formulas in a spreadsheet, they can creatively solve simple and complex tasks involving percentages and interest calculations.
- When drawing up savings and redemption plans, the advantage of the medium becomes obvious through the saving of writing, calculating and therefore time.
- The understanding of the content of formulas is deepened by suitable tasks.
Calculating percentages with Excel
The following pages are intended to help students in secondary school 1 to solve tasks from the percentage calculation with a spreadsheet program, here MS – Excel. It is helpful if the basic use of a spreadsheet has already been practiced. The use of formulas is first worked out with the basic arithmetic operations, followed by exercises in percentage calculation. The exercises are all in an Excel file, the solutions and explanations are in this html document. Online you can work with these two documents in parallel. Alternatively, this content can also be downloaded as a zipped Word – document in the attachment and modified. The Excel file, consisting of 7 tables with 8 exercises can also be downloaded there. Use the tabs at the bottom of the table to access the individual exercises.
1. Addition – subtraction – multiplication and division with Excel
Excel, like a pocket calculator, can perform arithmetic operations. If you work with Excel z.B. If you want to perform an addition, as in example 1 below, the program must know in which cells the numbers to be added are located. In this context, one speaks of Cell references . In our example (1. Sum) there is a 9 in cell C4 and a 3 in cell C5. The sum should be in cell C6. For this you have to enter into this cell a so-called Formula with the corresponding Cell references type. In cell C6 the value of the sum, i.e. 12, is then displayed.