Bio 150B Excel Tutorial
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Excel Tutorial
As part of your laboratory write-ups and reports during this semester you will be required to
collect and present data in an appropriate format. To organize and present this collected data you
will need some method to store, manipulate and present this data. Using Microsoft Excel is one
convenient method. You may already be familiar with creating spreadsheets in excel, if so you
can skip Part I of this tutorial. If not, work through all the parts.
I. Creating Spreadsheets Using Excel
First, launch a new excel document. In your computers launcher, select the Applications section,
and click the Microsoft Excel button. If you have a PC (instead of a Mac) go to the Microsoft
Office toolbar (at the top or left of the screen) and click on the green Microsoft Excel icon. This
will open a blank spreadsheet with the title Worksheet 1. Each empty box in the spreadsheet is a
cell. Cells are identified by column letters and row numbers. Click on A1. This will select that
cell and outline it. Let’s use the first row to identify our data. In A1, type “Time”. Click on B1.
Type “Cell Number”. Click on C1. Type “Dissolved Oxygen”. If the text typed into a cell
overruns the cell border, simply click the cursor on the edge between cells C and D. You will
get a double headed arrow. Drag the cursor in the direction you with to expand the cell column.
Now we have a simple matrix consisting of three parameters: Time, Cell Number and Dissolved
Oxygen.
Click on A2, and type in the initial time “0”. Click on B2 and enter “10”. Now click on C2 and
enter “345”. Complete the data matrix shown below.
TIME
0
1
3
6
12
24
48
72
96
CELL NUMBER
10
12
13
28
168
1996
34960
36120
41000
Dissolved Oxygen
345
340
341
330
318
220
200
196
201
Now, let’s do some simple manipulation of the data. What is the average dissolved oxygen
concentration over the 96 hour time period shown? Click on cell C11 and type
“=Average(C2:C10)”, then press return. This tells Excel to calculate the average of the numbers
entered in cells C2 through C10 and to display that average in C11. Repeat for the cell number
data. There are many different functions that Excel can calculate. Click on the fx icon on the
Excel toolbar to see a complete listing.
II. Creating Diagrams using Excel
Once you have entered all your data onto an Excel spreadsheet and done any necessary
calculation, you might want to create some diagrams or graphs that illustrate trends among your
variable or variables.
Bio 150B Excel Tutorial
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XY Plots – If you wish to plot the change in cell numbers in comparison to your time variable in
order to see the relationship, use the following method for creating an XY scatterplot. Highlight
cells 2 through 10 in columns A and B using your cursor. [Alternatively, if you are having
difficulty selecting cells with the drag aspect of the cursor you can highlight the first cell, jold
down the shift key and select the last cell in the column and all the cells in between will also be
selected and highlighted. This same feature works for rows as well as columns]. From the Excel
toolbar click the Chart Wizard icon (the tiny red, blue and yellow bar chart). Select the XY
(scatter) option from the menu list on the left. From the Chart Sub-type selections choose the
Scatter with data points connected by smooth lines. This will give you a plot of data points
against your X and Y axes with a smooth curve joining all the points. Click the preview button
to see if it looks correct.
45000
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
Series1
15000
10000
5000
0
-5000
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Now click on “Next”. This screen shows you the XY plot. At the top it says Data Range
indicating that the line with the cursor blinking at its end is the data cells which are being
presented on the picture plot. Now click on the “Series” tab. This moves you to a new screen
showing the cells which are being used to create the X and Y axes of your plot. If you wish to
plot two lines on the same graph you would click the Add button to create an additional series.
We will do this later. Click the “next” button to continue.
This brings you to the Chart Options menu. Here you can add in a Title, labels for your X and Y
axes, a legend if you don’t have one, or change your gridlines if desired. For now let’s just stay
with the Title tab. Type in “Cell Growth in Culture” for your chart title. For your Y axis type in
“Cell Number”. For your X axis type in “Time (hours)”. Always present units when creating a
plot or graph so that others can interpret your data.
Bio 150B Excel Tutorial
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Cell Growth in Culture
45000
40000
35000
Cell Number
30000
25000
Series1
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Time (hours)
Now click “next”. This brings you to the Chart Location menu. If you want to display the chart
or graph next to your raw data click ok. If you would rather display the chart as a separate sheet
in your Excel file, choose the As New Sheet option and then click ok. Your graph will open as a
full screen sheet. To get back to the raw data spreadsheet, choose the Sheet 1 tab at the bottom
of the Excel screen.
Plotting an Additional Series – In some cases you may want to plot two series of means on the
same graph, or you may want to plot a control data point for comparison to your time collected
means. Return to your data spreadsheet. In cell A12 type in “Stock”. In cell B12 type in
“40000”. In cell C12 type in “345”.
Now use the bottom tab to return to your Chart. Click on the Chart menu button at the top of the
screen and select Source Data. Choose the series tab option. Now click the Add button. In the
small box it will show a designation “Series 2” which is highlighted. To name this series, type in
the appropriate name in the Name box on the right. For this step in our exercise use the
designation “Stock”. Now click on the x-values line and place your flashing cursor in that box.
Type “={0}”. This will put or assign the data the value of 0 on the x-axis so when the point is
plotted it will appear on the y axis. Now click on the YValues box. Go to the far right end of the
box and click on the small chart with the red arrow. This will condense the Chart Source Data
box into a small window open over your graph. If you are not in your data spreadsheet choose
the appropriate sheet from the buttons at the bottom. Select cell B12. Click on the red arrow
icon to the right end of the Source-Data Values: window. This takes you back to Source Data
window. Click OK to view your graph. You graph should appear like the one below.
Bio 150B Excel Tutorial
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Cell Growth in Culture
45000
40000
35000
30000
Cell Number
25000
Cell Growth
20000
Stock
15000
10000
5000
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
-5000
Time (hours)
Now lets clean up the graph. First click on the dark gray area and use the delete key. This
removes the gray background so when you print the graph it is clean and legible. If you wish to
change the color or shape of the data point markers double clicking on them will take you to an
appropriate menu that allows you to choose different styles and colors.
Your graph, like the one above, may have an odd Y-axis scale. To change or adjust the scale of
either axis, double click on that axis. Do that for the Y-axis now. Choose the Scale tab at the
top. Where it lists Minimum Value change the –5000 to 0. Click on OK to return to the graph
itself. Now repeat for the X-axis. In the Maximum box change 120 to 100 and click OK.
Use the Dissolved Oxygen data to repeat the tutorial above with a different data set. Try
adjusting the axes on your own and manipulating various features of the Chart Wizard function.
Create your own data sets and try different graphing styles as well. Bar, column, and line charts
might be good ones to also become familiar with for scientific presentation and analysis.
Your two graphs based upon the initial data set should look something like the ones below.
Bio 150B Excel Tutorial
Final Graph; Plot of Cell Growth (Cell Number vs. Time):
Cell Growth in Culture
45000
40000
35000
Cell Number
30000
25000
20000
Cell Growth
Stock
15000
10000
5000
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Time (hours)
Final Graph; Plot of Oxygen Use (Dissolved Oxygen vs. Time):
Culture Media Oxygen Concentration
Oxygen Concentration (uM)
400
Dissolved O2
350
Normal Concentration
300
250
200
150
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Time (hours)
70
80
90
100
90
100
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