Google Forms & Sheets Script

Warm-Up: Data Brainstorm (5 minutes)

Teacher: "Good morning/afternoon, everyone! Today, we're going to dive into some super useful digital tools. To start, let's think about how we collect information. Imagine you need to ask your friends a few questions about their favorite books or what snacks they want for a class party. How would you collect that information? Turn and talk to a partner for about 30 seconds to share your ideas."

(Pause for student discussion)

Teacher: "Alright, let's hear some ideas! Who wants to share how they might collect information from their friends?" (Call on a few students to share ideas like asking verbally, writing it down, sending a text, etc.)

Teacher: "Great ideas! We've all collected information in different ways. Today, we're going to learn about a powerful digital tool that makes collecting and organizing information incredibly easy: Google Forms, and how it works with Google Sheets!"

Introduction to Google Forms & Sheets (10 minutes)

Teacher: "So, what exactly is Google Forms? Think of it as your digital survey superhero! It's a free tool that lets you create online surveys, quizzes, polls, and even forms to gather feedback or registrations for events. Has anyone ever filled out a Google Form before? Maybe for a school club, a survey from another class, or even just for fun?" (Pause for a show of hands or brief responses.)

Teacher: "Exactly! Google Forms helps us collect all sorts of information quickly and efficiently. But here's the 'power-up' part: Google Forms and Google Sheets are best friends. What do I mean by that? Well, every single time someone fills out your Google Form, their response automatically gets sent and organized into a Google Sheet. It's like magic!"

Teacher: "Why is this so cool? No more messy papers, no more trying to manually organize everyone's answers. Your data is instantly organized in a spreadsheet, making it super easy to read, sort, and analyze. This is a skill that's useful in school for projects, and even outside of school if you ever need to organize information for a group or activity."

Demonstration: Creating a Form & Linking to Sheets (15 minutes)

Teacher: "Now, let's see this in action. I'm going to demonstrate how to create a simple Google Form and how those responses appear in a Google Sheet. Please pay close attention, as you'll be doing something similar very soon."

(Open a web browser and go to forms.google.com or Google Drive > New > Google Forms)

Teacher: "First, I'll go to forms.google.com, or you can find it in your Google Drive under 'New' and then 'Google Forms'. See this blank form? The first thing I'm going to do is give my form a clear and descriptive title. Let's call this 'Our Class Favorite Snack Survey'."

(Type in the title)

Teacher: "Next, I'll add my first question. I can choose different types of questions. For example, for 'What is your favorite snack?', I could use 'Short Answer' if I want them to type anything, or 'Multiple Choice' if I want to give them specific options. Let's try multiple choice first."

(Add a multiple-choice question with 3-4 options)

Teacher: "I can also make a question 'Required' if I need everyone to answer it. See this little asterisk? That means it's required. Let's add another question, maybe 'On a scale of 1-5, how much do you like healthy snacks?', and this time I'll use a 'Linear Scale' type of question. Or perhaps a 'Checkboxes' question for 'Which of these fruits do you enjoy?'"

(Demonstrate adding different question types and marking a question as 'Required')

Teacher: "Now that I have a few questions, how do people fill it out? I can click this 'Send' button and get a link. I'll share this link for a moment."

(Share the form link quickly with students via chat or by showing on screen, encourage 2-3 students to quickly fill it out if time permits, or simply state hypothetically that people would fill it out.)

Teacher: "Okay, let's pretend a few people have filled out our survey. To see the responses, I click on the 'Responses' tab right here in Google Forms. And look! It shows me a summary. But the real magic happens when I click this green Google Sheets icon. This will 'View responses in Sheets'."

(Click the Google Sheets icon, opening the linked spreadsheet)

Teacher: "Voila! All the responses are here, neatly organized into columns with a timestamp for when they were submitted. Each question is its own column. From here, I could sort this data, maybe to see which snack is most popular, or filter it to only show responses from certain people. This makes analyzing information so much easier than looking at individual responses!"

Guided Practice: Build Your Own Form (10 minutes)

Teacher: "Now it's your turn to be the form creator! You're going to create your own simple Google Form. I'm distributing the Google Forms Practice Worksheet and Form Building Activity which has detailed instructions. Your task is to create a form about a topic of your choice. It could be about your favorite class, types of pets, video games, or anything appropriate you can think of. Make sure your form has:

• A clear title.
• At least three different questions.
• At least two different types of questions (like one multiple choice and one short answer).
• Make at least one question required.

I want you to try and get at least 3 responses. You can even fill out your own form a couple of times to test it out! I'll be walking around to help. If you finish early, try adding a new question type or changing your form's theme."

(Distribute worksheets and activity guides. Circulate and assist students.)

Discussion & Cool-Down (5 minutes)

Teacher: "Alright everyone, let's bring our attention back up here for a moment. You've just created your own Google Forms and seen how they connect to Google Sheets! To wrap up, let's have a quick Google Forms & Sheets Discussion Guide. Turn to your partner again or share with the class: How do you think you could use Google Forms and Sheets for a school project or something else in your life? What kind of information could you collect that would be helpful to organize this way?"

(Facilitate a brief discussion, encouraging students to think about real-world applications.)

Teacher: "Excellent ideas! Now, for our Google Forms Cool-Down, I want you to quickly answer one question on a slip of paper or in a quick digital response: 'What is one new thing you learned about Google Forms or Sheets today, or one way you plan to use it?' This will help me see what stuck with you. Thanks, everyone!"

(Collect cool-down responses.)

Google Forms Warm-Up: Data Detective!

Imagine you are a detective, and your mission is to find out the class's favorite type of pizza. To do this, you need to collect information from everyone.

1. How would you ask everyone? What questions would you ask to get the information you need?
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. How would you record their answers? Where would you put all the information so it's easy to look at later?
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Why is it important to organize this information? What problems might you have if you just wrote answers down randomly?
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Form Building Activity: Your Own Data Quest!

Now it's your turn to be a Google Form creator! Follow the steps below to build your own simple form and collect some data.

Your Mission:

Create a Google Form about a topic you find interesting. Get at least 3 responses (you can even fill out your own form a few times!).

Instructions:

1. Open Google Forms: Go to forms.google.com or open Google Drive, click 'New', then 'Google Forms'.

2. Give Your Form a Title:

   • Click on "Untitled form" at the top.
   • Type a clear and exciting title for your form (e.g., "Awesome Animal Survey," "My Favorite Things Poll," "Class Book Recommendations").

3. Add a Description (Optional):

   • Below your title, you can add a short description explaining what your form is about.

4. Create Your First Question:

   • Click on the "Untitled Question" box.
   • Type your question (e.g., "What is your favorite animal?").

5. Choose a Question Type:

   • Click on the dropdown menu next to the question (it probably says "Multiple choice" or "Short answer").
   • Choose a suitable type for your question. Try using:
     • Short Answer: For quick, open-ended responses.
     • Multiple Choice: For questions with a set list of answers.
     • Checkboxes: For questions where people can pick more than one answer.
     • Linear Scale: For rating things (e.g., 1-5).

6. Add Options (for Multiple Choice/Checkboxes):

   • If you chose Multiple Choice or Checkboxes, type in your answer options.
   • Click "Add option" to add more choices.

7. Make it Required:

   • If you want everyone to answer this question, click the "Required" toggle switch at the bottom right of the question box.

8. Add More Questions:

   • Click the + icon on the right-hand menu to add a new question.
   • Challenge: Make sure you use at least two different question types in your form!

9. Preview Your Form:

   • Click the eye icon (Preview) at the top of the form to see what it will look like to others.

10. Collect Responses:

    • After previewing, go back to edit mode.
    • Click the "Send" button.
    • Click the link icon (looks like a paperclip) and then "Copy" the link.
    • Paste the link into a new browser tab or share it with a classmate if allowed, and fill out your own form a few times to get at least 3 responses.

11. Check Your Sheet!

    • Once you have responses, go to the "Responses" tab in your Google Form.
    • Click the green Google Sheets icon to open your linked spreadsheet and see your organized data!**

Google Forms Practice Worksheet

Name: ________________________

Today, you'll be creating your own Google Form! This worksheet will guide you through the process.

Part 1: Plan Your Form

Before you start building, let's plan what your form will be about and what questions you'll ask.

1. What is the topic of your Google Form? (e.g., Favorite Hobbies, Dream Vacations, School Lunch Survey)
   
   
   
   

2. Write down at least THREE questions you will ask in your form. For each question, decide what type of question it will be (Short Answer, Multiple Choice, Checkboxes, Linear Scale).

   • Question 1:

     • Question:
       
       
       
     • Type of Question:
       
       
       
     • (If Multiple Choice/Checkboxes) Options:
       
       
       

   • Question 2:

     • Question:
       
       
       
     • Type of Question:
       
       
       
     • (If Multiple Choice/Checkboxes) Options:
       
       
       

   • Question 3:

     • Question:
       
       
       
     • Type of Question:
       
       
       
     • (If Multiple Choice/Checkboxes) Options:
       
       
       

Part 2: Build Your Form (Refer to the Form Building Activity for detailed steps)

Now, go to forms.google.com and create your form based on your plan above. Remember to:

• Give your form a clear title.
• Use at least two different question types.
• Make at least one question Required.

Part 3: Collect & Check Responses

1. Collect Responses: Get at least 3 people (or fill out your own form 3 times) to complete your form.

2. View Responses in Google Sheets:

   • Go to the "Responses" tab in your Google Form.
   • Click the green Google Sheets icon to open the linked spreadsheet.

3. Answer these questions about your data:

   • What is the title of your linked Google Sheet?
     
     
     
   • How many columns does your spreadsheet have? (Hint: Count the number of questions plus one for the timestamp)
     
     
     
   • What is the first piece of data you see in your spreadsheet (besides the column headers)? (e.g., a timestamp, an answer to your first question)
     
     
     

4. Reflection: What was the easiest part of creating your Google Form? What was the most challenging part?
   
   
   
   
   
   

Google Forms & Sheets Discussion Guide

Objective: To help students reflect on the practical applications and benefits of using Google Forms and Sheets for data collection and organization.

Discussion Prompts:

1. Brainstorming Uses:

   • Now that you've created your own Google Form and seen how the data goes into a Sheet, how do you think you could use these tools for school projects or activities outside of school?
   • Can you think of any situations where collecting information this way would be much better than just asking people verbally or on paper?

2. Data Organization:

   • What are the benefits of having all your form responses automatically organized in a Google Sheet?
   • How might this make it easier to understand or analyze the information you collected?

3. Question Types:

   • Why is it important to choose the right type of question (like multiple choice vs. short answer) when building a form?
   • Can you give an example of a question where a 'Linear Scale' (like 1-5) would be perfect?

4. Real-World Connections:

   • Where have you seen or filled out forms like Google Forms in the real world (e.g., online surveys, event sign-ups, feedback forms)?
   • How might businesses or organizations use these tools to gather information from people?

5. Troubleshooting & Tips:

   • What was one challenge you faced when creating your form, and how did you overcome it?
   • What advice would you give to someone who is just starting to use Google Forms for the first time?

Concluding Thought:

Remember, understanding how to effectively gather and organize data is a valuable skill in our increasingly digital world! You're now one step closer to being a data master.

Google Forms Cool-Down: My Data Insight

Name: ________________________

Take a moment to reflect on what you learned today about Google Forms and Google Sheets.

What is ONE new thing you learned about Google Forms or Google Sheets today, OR one specific way you plan to use it in the future?