Tutor profile: Amy H.

Is it possible to create a list of items that change color if it meets a certain criteria?

You can highlight a range of cells and go to Home tab. Select "Conditional Formatting" from the toolbar and drop down to select "Highlight Cells Rules". The select Equal to in the drop down menu to the right. In the text box that pops up, type the word or number that you would like make change a color. For example, if I am doing a flower list and I want to be alerted if Hibiscus is typed into a cell, then I would type "Hibiscus" in the text box that pops up. Select a color from where it says "Format cells that are equal to". If you want to select a different color than those that are showing, you can select "Custom" and choose the color you want. Now every time you type "Hibiscus" in the range it will turn that color.

How can you change your search to find what you are looking for in a database?

Sometimes databases like Gale or Britannica don't find a topic that you are searching for like you think it should. You may have to alter the words in the search. For example, you can add the word "OR" to broaden the search. If you are looking for information about plants and put in a search for planets OR space you would come up with a wider search with anything about those two topics. If you wanted to be more specific, you could type in Earth AND Mars. Only information about those two planets would show.

What types of lessons can you create that will push students to use higher level thinking by evaluating the information from the lesson?

There are many great ways for students to evaluate information in Social Studies Students can evaluate sources, people, situations, and battles. One lesson from the Reconstruction unit in Social Studies is to have students read information about different people and evaluate if these people would be for or against the issues of that time. For example, students could read about a plantation owner, a woman school teacher, an ex-slave, and a General in the Confederate Army. Have students read a biography of each person and decide if they would have a positive or negative reaction to events from that era, such as, the 13th amendment, the 14th amendment, Lincoln's assassination, and Sharecropping. Students would then explain their answers.