Index of downloads:

Examples of Excel models for other classes:

My example file for students - a wool coat vs. a Colombia-type jacket

Student Excel files (email me and I will send them to you, there are some issues placing these up on the web):

  • Artificial turf vs. natural grass
  • Artificial Christmas tree vs. real
  • Canning or shipping local produce vs. shipping
  • Cloth vs. disposable diapers
  • Corn ethanol vs. gasoline
  • Cost/benifit of over-fertilization
  • Fluorescent vs. incandescent light
  • Flying vs. driving
  • Health cost vs. real cost of electrostatic precipitators in coal plants
  • Helicopter logging vs. traditional logging
  • Hybrid vs. regular car
  • Hybrid vs. small car
  • How long will it take to pay back a new car's carbon debt (from manufacturing) in improved mileage vs. current older car?
  • Incandescent vs. fluorescent
  • Range fed vs. feedlot beef
  • Paper towels vs. electric hand drier in restroom
  • Paper vs. plastic bags
  • Paper vs. plastic vs. cloth recyclable bags
  • PLA (corn based polymer) vs. PET
  • Plastic bottles vs. aluminum cans
  • Is glass worth recycling
  • Swiffer vs. a mop
  • Composite deck vs. lumber
  • Does a windmill pay back the energy needed to make it?
  • Wood heat vs. electric heat
In general, each student wrote a paper reflecting on how they selected the variables they thought were meaningful, where they got their data, whether or not they trusted their data, how they connected their data, how they compared their predictions to other's predictions, and hypotheses that they made with their model.

Some chose to include documentation within their model on how to use it and where their data came from, others did not.

I would like to run this kind of a project at the high school level in the future.  Contact me if interested.