Timeline: 2 to 4 class periods
Description: In this activity, you will learn how to manage information in a database. You will create and design a database that catalogs the inventons of African-Americans. Then, you analyze, search, retrieve, sort, and print data appropriate formats.
Objectives:
- To build a database customized to meet specific needs
- To analyze and manage a database
- To reasearch the Internet for specific information
- To gain knowledge of black inventors and inventions
Review Concepts
- Review Online Access Tutorials
- Review Database Terms:
- Datasheet view, Design view, Field Format, Field name, Field, Form, Entry, Primary key
- Query, Record, RDMS, Relational database, Report, Table, Sort Updating
- Take Pre-Assessment. Select "Jump Right In!!" to get started with the The Black Inventors Test.
Prepare the Template
- Define the fields for the Black Inventors database. ( Last Name, First Name, Gender, Invention, Month of Invention, Day of Invention, Year of Invention, Patent, & Other Inventions, etc.)
- Launch MicroSoft Access and create the Inventions table. Select the appropriate data type and describe each field name.
Data Entry
- Search the Internet for black inventors and inventions.
- From the Datasheet View, input 30 records of inventions.
- Format the Inventions table with appropriate column width, then print table.
- Updata the database, adding 10 - 20 more records, then print table (Printout 1).
Sort Data
- Develop new insights about your Black Inventors database by rearranging, sorting, and filtering the data.
- Sort table alphabetically by inventor, then by invention (Printout 2).
- Query the database to display inventions meeting the following criteria:
- Inventions by century
- Inventions by Month
- Inventios by Year (Printout 3)
- Inventions by gender of inventor
Find Data If you can not remember the name of a particular inventor, but you know the invention, use MicroSoft Access Find command to loacate the required information.
Report Results
- Import MS Access table into MS Word report.
- Display Inventions table
- Choose Access Tools Menu.
- Select "Publish it with MS Word"
- Once the table is inside of MS Word, write a summary about the following.
- What have you learned about using MS Access?
- What have you learned about Black Inventors and Inventions?(Printout 4)
Recommended Web Sites:
- http://www.swagga.com/inventors.htm
- http://www.uky.edu/StudentOrgs/AWARE/archives/invent.html
- http://www.ai.mit.edu/~isbell/HFh/black/events_and_people/009.aa_inventions
- http://www.littleafrica.com/resources/inventors.htm
