Excel Project Week 8-9

Mr. Olsen called Microsoft Excel a “Swiss army knife” of computer programs. After working with the program, I am inclined to agree. I was often amazed with just what can be done with the program, and how accessible and easy it was to use.

The project we were given was to take raw data for 1,000 participants in a 20-minute exercise routine at a fitness center. Then, we were to manipulate it in order to ascertain multiple facts that could be derived from that data. Information provided was the age and sex of subjects, their beginning heart rate, and their heart rate at each minute mark throughout the routine.

Next, we were to determine, using both numerical and logical formulas, certain aspects of this data. The maximum heart rate for each participant was to be determined first. Then, we were to determine the target hear rate for each participant. We used this data to determine if participants reached their target, designated by “yes, or “no”, by pulling out each participant’s highest heart rate achieved and then applying a logical formula. Finally, we were to determine the percent of increase for heart rate, for each participant throughout their routine.

Finally we were to create to pivot tables used to analyze certain characteristics of the data. The first pivot table concerned the number of participants, separated by gender, who both reached and did not reach the target heart rate. Also, an aggregate of the combined sexes was to be displayed. The second pivot table, which can be seen above, was to display the average percentage of heart rate increase of each age group (broken down by 10-year increments), separated by gender.

I personally found this project to be a lot of fun. I was constantly amazed by the capabilities of the program.  I even called family members who work in offices and offered to show them some new tricks. I did, however, have some issues. I recently bought a MacBook Pro, as requested of the journalism college, and obtained a copy of MS Office for Mac 2011. Though this version is, in my opinion, more efficient and easier to use than its PC counterpart, the instructional videos were for PC. I had to discover shortcuts and ribbon/menu pathways on my own.

This, for the most part, was not a horrible problem; however, some issues, like taking a screen shot or determining how a pivot table should analyze the data, were very different from the PC program. Though it took a while to figure such things out, I did come to the determination that they were difficult to figure out because they were more simple, while I was hunting for some complicated process. End of story, I recommend the Mac version of Excel.