8th Grade - GPA Introduction and Activity

Career Standard:

MSCM 8-4:Students will personalize a self-selected Pathway that meets educational and career goals.

f) Demonstrate an understanding of how GPA calculations, financial aid information, and postsecondary options can help achieve educational and career goals. Postsecondary options include 2 and 4 year colleges and universities, technical colleges, special-purpose schools, apprenticeships, military, on-the-job training, online courses, etc.

Business and Computer Science Standard:

MSBCS-BCSIII-4: The students will exhibit critical thinking.

a) Understanding the importance of making informed or educated decisions.

b) Develop cohesive and logical reasoning patterns.

c) Importance of accepting, rejecting or suspending judgment.

Essential Questions:

1. What elements provide evidence of educational achievement?

2. What is the relationship between educational achievement and the attainment of personal and career goals?

3. How is GPA calculated, and what is the importance of having the highest possible GPA?

4. What are the requirements for obtaining financial aid and how does researching financial aid opportunities contribute to personal and career success?

5. What are post-secondary options and why is it important to research all the possible choices?

Part I

Directions: Type and Answer the following questions:

1. What is a GPA (describe in your own words) and what does GPA stand for?Go to the following website to answer the question:

2. How do you calculate your GPA? (Explain)Go to the following website to answer the question:

3. After reading about GPA’s list 3 things you think your High School GPA will be used for:

Part II

1. Open Microsoft Excel

2. In cell 1A type “Grade Level”.

3. In cell 2A type “Course”.

4. In cell 3A type “Grade”

5. In cell 4A type “Quality Points”

**Hint: If all of your text is not showing, you will need to widen your columns. To adjust column width click on the line between the letters, and drag the line to the width of your choice or you can also double click on the line to automatically adjust column width.

6. In cell 5A type “GPA”

7. Highlight cells 2A thru 5A, In the Alignment section click on the Merge & Center Tool, Wrap Text Tool and Middle Alignment Tool. Once the cells are merged, type 9th Grade Semester 1.

8. In cell B2 type “9th Grade Lit/Comp”

9. In cell B3 type “Math 1 – Accelerated”

10. In cell B4 type “Health/Personal Fitness”

11. In cell B5 type “Computing in the Modern World”

12. In cell C2 type “88”

13. In cell C3 type “97”

14. In cell C4 type “95”

15. In cell C5 type “90”

16. In the quality points column, put a 4 for an A, a 3 for a B, a 2 for a C and 0 for an F. Colleges give you 1 for a D (60 – 69), but high schools don’t. In cell D2 type “3”. In cell D3 type “4”. In cell D4 type “4”. In cell D5 type “4”

17. Highlight cells A1 thru D1, click on the arrow to the right of the paint bucket to get the color pallet and choose the fill color “light blue”.

18. Select cell E2, click on the arrow to the right of the paint bucket to get the color pallet and choose the fill color red.

19. Highlight cells A6 thru A9, and click on the tools, Merge & Center, Wrap Text, and Middle Align. Just like the step in Step #7 and type “9th Grade Semester 2”.

20. In cell B6, type “Biology”.

21. In cell B7, type “American Government Honors”.

22. In cell B8, type “Weight Training”.

23. In cell B9, type “Spanish I”.

24. In cell C6, type “78”.

25. In cell C7, type “82”.

26. In cell C8, type “95”.

27. In cell C9, type “90”.

28. In cells D6-D9, type the quality points for each grade in the correct cell. Remember 4 for an A, a 3 for a B, a 2 for a C and 0 for an F.

29. Highlight cells A10 thru A13, and click on the tools, Merge & Center, Wrap Text, and Middle Align. Just like the step in Step #7 and type “10th Grade Semester 1”.

30. Highlight cells A14 thru A17, and click on the tools, Merge & Center, Wrap Text, and Middle Align. Just like the step in Step #7 and type “10th Grade Semester 2”.

31. Highlight cells A18 thru A21, and click on the tools, Merge & Center, Wrap Text, and Middle Align. Just like the step in Step #7 and type “11th Grade Semester 1”.

32. Highlight cells A22 thru A25, and click on the tools, Merge & Center, Wrap Text, and Middle Align. Just like the step in Step #7 and type “11th Grade Semester 2”.

33. Highlight cells A26 thru A29, and click on the tools, Merge & Center, Wrap Text, and Middle Align. Just like the step in Step #7 and type “12th Grade Semester 1”.

34. Highlight cells A30 thru A33, and click on the tools, Merge & Center, Wrap Text, and Middle Align. Just like the step in Step #7 and type “12th Grade Semester 2”.

35. Now, you will enter the rest of the data for 10th grade semester thru 12th Grade Semester.

36. Highlight cells A1 thru D33, click on borders and choose “All Borders”.

37. Click in cell E5 and choose “All Borders”.

38. Click in cell E9 and choose “All Borders”.

39. Click in cell E13 and choose “All Borders”.

40. Click in cell E17 and choose “All Borders”.

41. Click in cell E21 and choose “All Borders”.

42. Click in cell E25 and choose “All Borders”.

43. Click in cell E29 and choose “All Borders”.

44. Click in cell E33 and choose “All Borders”.

45. To calculate the GPA for each semester, you will need to add the quality points for each class together and divide by the number of courses taken for that semester: (For example: (3+4+4+4)/4 = 3.75) To put this into a formula, follow these instructions: Click in Cell E5. Type the following: =(D2+D3+D4+D5)/4 (You can also click the cell and it will insert cell name for you) Calculate the GPA for each semester and put the answer in the correct cell.