Favorite restaurant database

Students will be able to show their ability to independently create a database.

A lesson plan for grade 7 Computer/Technology Skills

By Elizabeth Everitt

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Related topics

• Learn more about databases and technology skills.

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Learning outcomes

The students will learn how to independently create a database.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

55 minutes

Materials/resources

• Disk to save their information
• Photocopy of the list of favorite restaurants.
• Transparency to review the steps for creating a database.

Technology resources

• Each student needs access to a computer with Database software (examples: MS works, Access, or any other database program.)
• A T.V. monitor and an Aver-Key (optional)
• An overhead projector

Pre-activities

• The students will need to know the importance of a database and why we use them. They will need to know the purpose of a database which is to organize information for easy search and retrieval. The students will need to know how to Create a New Database File.
• As a class they will have created some sort of database that is teacher directed. For example: A list of their friends and demographics or a list of T.V. shows and various fields, such as channel, time, day, category, length, and etc. At least two databases should be done as a class before students proceed with this assignment. Included in this, they should know how to adjust a field width and other formatting techniques , such as bold, italics, underline, alignment, etc.

Activities

Depending on the software, the instructions may vary. The software we are using is MS Works 4.5.

1. The students will enter MS Works 4.5. and click on the works tools tab.
2. Then they will create a new database file.
3. As the student enters into the new file, a help box will come on their screen. At this point they will choose the icon that says: To create a new database. (If they are unsure of what to do they can select the other icon which is: Quick tour of creating databases.)
4. Once they have chosen to create a new database they will then proceed to enter their fields. Another box will pop up on their screen to ask them to type in their first field.
5. They will then begin entering the fields into the Database. They are Name, Type of Food, Favorite Meal, Favorite Appetizer, Favorite Dessert, Nearest City. (Note that Favorite Appetizer and Favorite Dessert are more than 15 characters long, therefore they have to be shortened to Fav. Appetizer and Fav. Dessert)
6. After they have typed in the fields, a help menu will accompany the list of fields. They then have the option to shrink the help menu to view their entire database. (the shrink help button is located in the bottom left hand corner of the help box.)
7. The students can then proceed to enter in the entries for each field. The entries are located on the attached file called restaurants. As the students begin entering the data they will need to adjust the specific field widths for each field as needed. The format menu will give them the option to adjust each field’s width. By choosing field width they can enter in a larger number so that all of their characters fit inside the field. An easier way to adjust each field is to simply double click the field name AFTER the entry has been typed in and it will format automatically.

Assessment

You can grade them based on the information that they have entered on their computer, and you can grade them based on their printout. As long as they have all of the fields and entries typed in they will have met the goals. It is up to the individual teacher to grade them on spelling, formatting, and printing specifics.

Supplemental information

I have attached a list of the restaurants I created (wps | rtf). You may use this list or you may come up with your own.