Using Excel 2010 to process data in Biology

 Start by Using Save As to save a copy of this document in your own

documents.

Excel is a great tool to help you analyse your data but just like any tool you need to
know how to use it, otherwise you are going to end up with pretty pictures that don’t
show you the patterns in your data which will help you to draw your conclusions.

The best way to learn to how excel works is to use it. Below are instructions and
exercises to do. It will be time consuming at first and you will probably have to refer
back to these instructions or the help function when you first start using it for lab
reports but with practice it will become easier and faster and you will be able to use
what you learned in other subjects as well.

Work through the worksheet, the tasks become more challenging as you go through.

Getting help
If you get stuck use the help function. Look under charts in Excel help.

Statistics
In Biology you should always carry out repeats of your experiment, preferably five or
more. It is then useful to know the average (mean, ) for your set of results. Some
other useful values are listed below

Statistic Description Excel formula

Mean ( ) The average number. You =AVERAGE(A1:A25)
add all the numbers
together and divide by the
number that of results.

Median The middle number. Place =MEDIAN(A1:A25)

all the results in order from
low to high and find the
middle number. If it is an
even number, you take the
middle number between
them.

Mode The number that occurs =MODE(A1:A25)

most often in your results.
Number of results The number of results. =COUNT(A1:A25)
(sample size - n) This can be the total or for
a particular variable.
Sum (Σ) The total =SUM(A1:A25)
Lowest number The lowest number in a =MIN(A1:A25)
data set.
Highest number The highest number in a =MAX(A1:A25)
data set

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  Go to the shared files, open the HS Science file and then the Grade 9 Biology
or IB Biology file. Open the excel file titled Using Excel 2007 in Biology. Using
Save as, save the file in your own documents.

Excel formula
Excel formula always start with an equal sign followed by the instruction. In the
brackets are cell references indicating the range of data that you want included in the
calculation, the cell references are separated by a colon. For example
=AVERAGE(B3:D8).

Once you have typed in a formula once you can easily copy and paste it to another
cell. Just make sure that the range of cells you want to use in the calculation is
correct.

You can also find the formula by clicking the little arrow next to the “Σ – Auto Sum”
button on the home tab, in the editing group.

Calculating statistics
To practice calculating statistics we are going to use the weight of a group of people,
which are recorded below.

Table 1: Weight of people in a group.

Weight (kg)
63.4 55.2 78.4 76.0
56.0 48.0 76.5 56.0
84.0 53.5 83.4 61.0
81.5 63.8 77.5 83.0
73.4 69.0 77.0 80.0
56.0 82.8 87.0 82.0
60.4 68.5 89.0 82.5
83.5 67.2 93.4 83.0

 On the spreadsheet select the worksheet labelled Statistics. Enter the data
from the table above.
 Calculate the mean, median, mode, number of items (count), the total (sum)
and the smallest and largest number in your data set.

The range of your data is the difference between the highest and lowest value of
your data set and when you are doing repeats it gives you an idea of how accurate
your data is. A small range means that all your data points are close together, and
usually that is an indication of quite accurate data.
 To calculate the range subtract the two values using the following formula
=B41-B40.

You will notice that the mean and median give you a numbers with two decimal
places. The measurements where taken with an accuracy of one decimal place. In
Biology answers to calculations cannot be more accurate than your
measurements.
 To change this, click on the cell containing the number for the mean and right
click on it. Select Format Cells.
 On the Number tab under Category change it from general to number.
 Change the decimal places to 1 and click OK. Your mean should now have
one decimal place.
 Repeat for the median.

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  Draw your conclusion using the statistics you calculated: What is the average
weight of this group of people? What weight occurs the most often in this set
of data? What is the range of data?

Congratulations, you have calculated your first set of statistics for Biology using
Excel!

Creating bar graphs

Moving swiftly on, the next thing we are going to learn is how to draw bar graphs. Bar
graphs are used when you are comparing distinct groups of data. The bars on the
graph do not touch.

Biologists have been investigating the frequency of blood types in a population. To

do this they took random samples from population X and determined their blood
group. The data is in the table below.

Table 2: Number of people of each blood type

in population X.
Blood group
Sample A B AB O
1 3 5 2 8
2 5 6 3 9
3 6 2 1 11
4 7 3 3 8
5 3 4 2 9
6 4 7 4 7
7 4 6 0 9
8 5 8 3 7
9 6 1 2 9
10 7 0 2 8

 Select the worksheet labelled “Bar graph”.

 Fill in the data from the table into the Excel spreadsheet.
 Calculate the total number of people in each blood group. To start you off the
first one has been done for you.
 Calculate the total number of people participating in the research project.
Hint: use sum again.
 Use the total per blood group to create a bar graph by highlighting the four
cells containing the labels A, B, AB and O. Hold down control and highlight
the four corresponding cells that contain the total for each blood group. You
should have 2 separate rows and 8 cells in total highlighted.
 Click on the Insert tab and then in the Charts group select Column, followed
by 2-D column and then clustered column. The first button in the top row.
Graphs in Biology should always be 2D, NOT 3D. The graph will now
appear on the worksheet you are working on.
 Ensure that your chart is active so that in the top bar Chart Tools appears.
This gives you three extra tabs labelled Design, Layout and Format.
 Under the design tab, in the group Chart Layouts, select the first icon,
Layout 1.
 Select the Chart title and change it to a more descriptive title. You can change
the font and font size of the title under the Home tab.
 Delete the legend on the right side of the chart, you don’t need it for this
particular chart.
 In the Chart Styles group, you can change the colour of the bars.

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  Select the Layout tab and then in the Labels group select the second icon,
Axis Titles. Select Primary Horizontal Axis Title and then Title below axis.
 Repeat the steps this time selecting Primary Vertical Axis Title and then
Rotated Title.
 Change the X axis title to “Blood group” and the Y axis title to “Number of
people”. Click next

It is difficult to determine what the exact value is for the blood groups using the Y axis
scale as it is. It can be improved by including the major and minor tick marks.
 Under the Layout tab, in the Axes group, select Axes, followed by Primary
Vertical Axis and then select More Primary Vertical Axis Options.
 In the Format Axis pop-up window, under Axis Options, change the Minor tick
mark type to Outside. Click Close.

This is an improvement but still not great unless you have a ruler ready when you are
reading the printed version of the graph. We can make the graph easier to read by
inserting more gridlines.
 Under the Layout tab, in the Axes group, select Gridlines, followed by Primary
Horizontal Gridlines and then Major & Minor Gridlines.
 Draw your conclusion from the bar graph. Which blood type is most common
in the population and which is the least common?

Congratulations, you have created a professional looking bar graph!

Creating line graphs with a line of best fit

To create this graph you are going to use the data from an osmosis lab report. The
data is in the table below.

Table 3: Percentage change in mass of potato

cylinders in different concentrations of sucrose.
Mass change
Sucrose of potato
concentration (M) cylinders (%)
0 14
0.2 5.3
0.4 -10.1
0.6 -18.4
0.8 -24
1 -31.8

 On the spreadsheet select the worksheet labelled Linear Line graph. Enter
the data from the table above.
 Select your data including the two column labels.
 Under the Insert tab, in the Charts group, select the Scatter and then Scatter
with only markers (the top left hand graph). The chart will appear on your
worksheet.
 Change the title to a descriptive title, insert the labels and units on both axes.
Also remove the legend.

All we need to do now is add a line of best fit. Excel calls this a trendline.

 In this case you are expecting a linear relationship and the data points on the
graph do show the predicted pattern so we are going to insert a linear
trendline.

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  Under the Layout tab, in the Analysis group select Trendline and then Linear
Trendline. The trendline will appear on your graph.

 To be able to make more accurate readings from the graph add in the major
and minor gridlines on both the vertical and horizontal axes. See the section
on bar graphs if you have forgotten how to do this.
 Due to the gridlines, the axes are now a bit hard to see and we want to make
them darker. Under the Layout tab, in the Axes group select Axes, then
Primary Horizontal Axis and then More Primary Horizontal Axis options.
 In the Format Axis pop-up window, select Line Colour and change the line
colour to Solid Line and black.
 Then select Line Style and change the width to 1.5 pt. Click Close.
 Repeat the step above but this time for the Primary Vertical Axis.
 Draw your conclusion from the line graph: What is the concentration of the
sucrose solution inside the potato?

Congratulations, you have now created a line graph with a line of best fit!

Creating a Polynomial Line graph

Don’t let the big fancy word put you off. A polynomial line graph is a curved line
graph. Not all your graphs in Biology will show a linear relationship, remember the
graphs we drew for enzymes? They are curved. We are going to use data from an
investigation on temperature and the rate of enzyme reactions to draw the next
graph. The first part is the same as drawing a linear line graph. Only inserting the line
of best fit is slightly different.

Table 4: The rate of reaction of an enzyme

at different temperatures.
Rate of enzyme reaction
Temperature
(mg of product formed
(ºC)
per minute)
10 1
20 2.1
30 3.2
35 3.7
40 4.1
45 3.7
50 2.7
60 0

 On the spreadsheet select the worksheet labelled Polylinear Line graph.

Enter the data from the table above.
 Highlight the two columns of data and create a scatter graph as you did for
the Linear line graph. Remember to give the graph a title, label the axes and
put in the units.
 Add in the gridlines and remove the key.
 Change the x and y axes so they are easier to see.

This time you are expecting a curve in your data and the data points do show that
pattern, so we are going to select Polynomial.

 Add a Trendline to your data by selecting More Trendline Options under

Trendline and then in the Format Trendline pop-up window select Polynomial.

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 Next to the term Polynomial is a box labelled Order. Order is the number of
bends that can be in the curve. You want to find the smallest possible number
that gives you the line best fitting your data, but it does not need to pass through
every single data point..

 Move the pop up window to the side so that you can see it and the graph you
are working on at the same time. Select 2 for Order and click Close.
 The order starts with two, look at your line of best fit. You will see it is too far
to the left.
 Change the Order to 3 and see how the line of best fit has changed.
 Repeat the last step, changing the order to 4 and 5 and back down, till you
find the line of best fit for your data.
 You should find that an Order of 3 gives you a good line of best fit.
 Draw your conclusion: According to the line of best fit on your graph what is
the optimum temperature for this particular enzyme?

Congratulations, you have drawn a polynomial line graph and well done for
completing the worksheet. Give yourself a pat on the back! You now have the
knowledge that will enable you to draw good graphs in any subject!

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