Student learning · Grades 6–8, Grades 9–12 · 50 minutes
Spreadsheet Sense-Making
Students turn a lunch survey into a spreadsheet or paper grid, compute counts and averages, build an honest chart, then catch and fix charts (and an AI chart suggestion) that mislead with a truncated axis or a cherry-picked range.
Charts show up everywhere students look: school newsletters, ads, news stories, social posts, and more and more often, AI tools that offer to "make a chart for you." In this lesson, students become the data team for the fictional Cedar Ridge Middle School cafeteria. They enter 24 survey responses into a spreadsheet (or a paper grid), count favorites and average the menu ratings, and draw an honest chart. Then they meet two flashy charts that use the same kind of data to tell a misleading story, one with a truncated axis and one with a cherry-picked range, plus a confident AI chart suggestion that gets the math wrong. Students fix each one and write a rule they can use whenever a chart tries to persuade them.
In this packet
- Handout A: Cedar Ridge Lunch Survey Data (organizer)
- Handout B: Charts That Tell a Story, and a Chatbot's Suggestion (reading)
- Handout C: Sense-Making Worksheet (worksheet)
TCEA ELE indicators
- S5.1 I know how to approach complex problems systematically.
- S1.1 I know how to use technology to support my learning.
- S5.2 I can use creativity and logic to find innovative solutions.
- AI4.1 I know how to promote critical thinking skills in relation to AI-generated information.
Full facilitator guide: mglearn.github.io/eles/activities/spreadsheet-sense-making.html
Handout A for Spreadsheet Sense-Making
Cedar Ridge Lunch Survey Data
Made-up data from the fictional Cedar Ridge Middle School. 24 students answered two questions: "What is your favorite lunch item?" and "Rate the cafeteria menu from 1 (not good) to 5 (great)." No names were collected.
| Response # | Grade | Favorite lunch item | Menu rating (1–5) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Pizza | 5 |
| 2 | 7 | Tacos | 4 |
| 3 | 8 | Pizza | 3 |
| 4 | 6 | Pasta | 4 |
| 5 | 7 | Salad bar | 2 |
| 6 | 8 | Tacos | 5 |
| 7 | 6 | Pizza | 3 |
| 8 | 7 | Sandwich | 4 |
| 9 | 8 | Tacos | 1 |
| 10 | 6 | Pizza | 3 |
| 11 | 7 | Pasta | 4 |
| 12 | 8 | Tacos | 5 |
| 13 | 6 | Salad bar | 2 |
| 14 | 7 | Pizza | 3 |
| 15 | 8 | Tacos | 4 |
| 16 | 6 | Pasta | 3 |
| 17 | 7 | Pizza | 5 |
| 18 | 8 | Sandwich | 4 |
| 19 | 6 | Tacos | 2 |
| 20 | 7 | Pizza | 3 |
| 21 | 8 | Salad bar | 4 |
| 22 | 6 | Tacos | 3 |
| 23 | 7 | Pasta | 1 |
| 24 | 8 | Pizza | 4 |
Handout B for Spreadsheet Sense-Making
Charts That Tell a Story, and a Chatbot's Suggestion
These charts and the chatbot answer are made up for practice. Read each part, then answer the questions on Handout C.
1PART 1: CHART 1, from a flyer made by the fictional Cedar Ridge Pizza Club. Headline: "Pizza CRUSHES Tacos!" The chart shows two bars, Pizza and Tacos. The vertical axis starts at 6 and goes up to 8. The Pizza bar reaches 8 and the Tacos bar reaches 7, so on the page the Pizza bar looks twice as tall as the Tacos bar. There are no numbers on the bars and no mention that only 24 students were surveyed.
2PART 2: THE LIBRARY DATA. The fictional Cedar Ridge library counted books checked out each school day for four weeks. Week 1 (Days 1–5): 48, 45, 50, 47, 44. Week 2 (Days 6–10): 42, 40, 43, 39, 38. Week 3 (Days 11–15): 36, 35, 37, 33, 31. Week 4 (Days 16–20): 30, 33, 35, 38, 41.
3PART 2: CHART 2, from the fictional school newsletter. Headline: "Library Checkouts Are SOARING!" The line chart shows only Days 16 to 20. The line climbs steeply from 30 to 41. The vertical axis starts at 28. There is no mention of Days 1 to 15.
4PART 3: THE CHATBOT'S SUGGESTION. A student pasted the lunch survey into an AI chatbot and asked, "What chart should I make, and what does it show?" The chatbot answered:
5"Great data! I recommend a pie chart of the menu ratings to show how students feel overall. Key findings: (1) The average menu rating is 3.9 out of 5, which shows strong approval. (2) 75% of students rated the menu 4 or 5. (3) Pizza is the favorite lunch item of most students. (4) For your favorite-item bar chart, start the vertical axis at 6 so the differences between items really stand out. This will make your presentation more exciting!"
6THINK ABOUT IT: Every chart and answer above sounds confident. Which ones would still hold up after you checked the full data and did the math yourself?
Handout C for Spreadsheet Sense-Making
Sense-Making Worksheet
Show your work. When a question asks you to check something, use your own calculations as evidence.
Counts: How many students picked each lunch item? (Pizza, Tacos, Pasta, Salad bar, Sandwich.) Write the formula or tally method you used.
Average (mean) menu rating: ___. Median rating: ___. Number of students who rated 4 or 5: ___ out of 24. Show how you found the mean.
Sketch your honest bar chart of favorite lunch items. The axis starts at 0, both axes are labeled, and the title describes the data.
Chart 1: What story does it want you to believe? What trick makes it look that way? What do the real numbers show?
Chart 2: What story does it want you to believe? What trick makes it look that way? What does the full four weeks show? (Hint: find each week's average.)
Chatbot check: Mark each of the four findings correct, wrong, or misleading, and write the correction using your numbers.
My three-part chart-checking rule, and one thing I would check before sharing a chart an AI tool made for me: