Excel Project

     The Excel Project that I completed consisted of a scenario about the job I have at a large fitness center, and the research my boss is collecting on the effectiveness of a particular workout. The data I have contains the age, sex, and heart rate measurements of 500 test subjects through a 15 minute workout and 5 minute cool down. This assignment uses many different aspects of Excel, including some that I am not familiar with, even after taking an Excel class back in community college.

One of the skills used in this project included formatting some of the raw data:

•                Freeze panes: The locking of certain rows or columns so they are always displayed no matter where you scroll on the worksheet.

•                Formulas: Using formulas to calculate the Maximum Heart Rate, the Target Heart Rate, the Highest Heart Rate Achieved, whether or not the Target Heart Rate was achieved, and the Percentage Increase in the Heart Rate.

•                Page Layout Formatting: Changing the print setup to display all columns across a single page, printing certain rows at the top of every page, and headers and footers.

Another skill used in this project was data analysis of some of the raw data:

•                Pivot Tables: Pivot tables are a feature in Excel that I have not had the ability to work with yet. However, they are a feature I will use as often as possible! A pivot table is an excellent way to summarize data from a multitude of subjects. They manipulate the data into any form wanted in order to compare any number of characteristics against each one another. For example, here is the screenschot of my AvgIncrease Pivot Table:

     The Pivot Table compare the Average of the Percent Increase of Heart Rate in three decades of subject ages to whether they were male or female. This table shows that 89.3% of males and females age 20-29 increased their heart rate. This is much more easily calculated using a Pivot Table rather than computing by hand or by a single formula.

     Having used Excel for a few years now, I have discovered it to be one of my favorite programs. I love how I am still able to find new feature after all this time! This project really helped to refresh my skills and learn new ones.

Tutorial 1: Google Searching Techniques

     Remember when searching for information was a lengthy process that included searching through many encyclopedias, phone books, or other types of reference books? I believe that this image about sums up how searching used to be:

 http://search.creativecommons.org/?q=google+classic

     
     Today, definitions, research, directions, phone numbers, and just about any kind of information you could need seems like it could be found on Google instantly. I know that I am lucky enough to have grown up in the "Google" generation, which has given me a huge advantage in the research department. 

     However, sometimes I just don’t feel like I’m searching for information in the best way possible. Luckily, in the Search Information section of Week One, we were provided with some tips from Google for more effective searching. I was unaware of the many advanced search feature to use while looking for information until this point. 

      We were provided with a document created by Google offering suggestions for better searching. You may find a full copy of that document here, http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861. I admit, my curiosity was piqued, and I tried these search techniques in order to see for myself what sort of results were found by Google. Below are three techniques that I found to be most useful.

TECHNIQUE 1:

To search within a specific website

    

     This technique comes in handy If you are researching a topic, and want the results only to come from one source, or a class of sources, you can specify that in your search.

      Let's say we are looking for articles on copyrights. We, of course, would only want information from a reputable source so we know it is correct. For this we could use government sponsored information. The search would look like so:

Copyright:.gov

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1276&bih=627&q=copyright%3A.gov&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

As you can see, the search only returned items from .gov websites. This is my new favorite feature!

TECHNIQUE 2:

Excluding terms you don’t want to appear in your results

     Excluding terms in a query is an option that is very useful. If you are looking for a specific item, but its name has multiple meanings, this technique will help to narrow down the results. To show this, will use the term Fox, which is known to many as FOX the Broadcast Company, but is of course an animal as well. The search would look like this:

Fox -tv -news

The trick is to remember to put a space between the end of a word and the minus sign, otherwise Google considers it to be a hyphen.

This screenshot shows that when searching for "Fox" on its own, you are provided with results mostly pertaining to FOX Broadcasting Company.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1255&bih=627&q=fox&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

 

This screenshot shows that using Technique 2 provides results pertaining to things other than FOX Broadcasting Company that has Fox included in the name.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1276&bih=627&q=fox+-tv+-news&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

 

You can see the distinct differences in the results between the two searches.

TECHNIQUE 3:

Fill in the blank (also known as wild card)

 

     When searching, if you include a * in the search, Google treats that * as a placeholder and tries to find the best match. This is very helpful if you are perhaps looking for a specific person but can't remember their whole name. For instance:

Chuck * biography

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1276&bih=627&q=chuck+*+biography&aq=f&aqi=g-v1&aql=&oq=

You can see that the search returns biographies of numerous people who have the first name of Chuck.

I hope that now you are able to use these techniques to modify your search habits when using Google so that you are able to search more effectively and efficiently. After using encyclopedias and numerous other reference books to find information, I'm sure everyone is looking for ways to search better than they have in the past!

My Avatar :)

After looking through the options for creating an avatar, I chose to use Face Your Manga. The website was quite simple to use, and there was no required download which I thought was a plus! I'm totally ok with a web site or program that is super easy to use, as I'm not so good with computers... hence why I'm doing all of the extra credit offered for the class :)

There were numerous options for design, including face shape, clothes, hair color, and make-up. The site allowed me to personalize my avatar exactly as I wanted it. I think that creating an avatar is a pretty cool concept, but not something I would have ever decided to do on my own, and I'm quite excited for my first blog post and avatar creation :)

Anyway... Here's my avatar!