CS-215 AI Literacy
Topic 05 · Spreadsheet challenge lab

Data, Excel, and Evidence WorkflowsDescribe the job well. Check the result.

Some jobs take hours by hand: hundreds of sign-ups, a dozen sign-in sheets, a certificate for every person. An agent does them in minutes, if you describe the job well. In one class you solve five, and check each result against a target.

Before class

Tuesday 10/13: bring a laptop with Claude Code signed in (the course plan). Nothing to prepare. Never bring or upload real gradebooks, customer lists, health records, workplace files, or personally identifiable data.

By the end

Four outcomes you can demonstrate.

The focus is judgment students can show, not vocabulary they can merely repeat.

01 · DESCRIBE

Describe a job to an agent: the files, the rules, the output, and a check.

02 · CHECK

Compare a result with a target before you trust it: a count, a total, one row you checked.

03 · REPAIR

When a result is off, ask for the agent’s assumptions and add the rule your description missed.

04 · MAKE

Get a real spreadsheet and a real Word document out of the agent, not only a chat answer.

Class route

One class, one lab page.

Topic 5 is one class: an 80-minute lab.

MEETING 1

Challenge Lab: Describe the Job, Let the Agent Do It

One class, five jobs on a made-up club’s data pack that would take hours by hand: the real ticket revenue, the no-shows, a certificate for everyone who came, the president’s one-pager, and (stretch) receipts against the budget. Describe each one well to Claude Code and check it against its target. Ungraded, nothing to submit.

80 MIN
  1. Set upDownload and unzip the data pack, start Claude Code inside it, and check it can make a Word file (hello.docx).
  2. Look at the dataThe four kinds of file on the projector: what in these rows would trip up a vague description?
  3. Challenges 1–2 · ExcelThe real ticket revenue, then the no-shows: describe, run, say your answer, compare with the target, add the missing rule.
  4. Challenge 3 · WordA certificate for everyone who came, one per page, in one .docx.
  5. Challenge 4 · Word + ExcelThe president’s one-pager: a table, the top 3 events, one chart, three findings.
  6. Answers, three habits, stretchAnswers on the board; describe the job, check against a target, find the missing rule; receipts if you finish early.
Lab pageTopic 5 Lab: describe the job, let the agent do it

Five Excel and Word jobs that are hard by hand, each with a target to check against, in Claude Code. Ungraded, nothing to submit.

Open the challenge lab
Evidence

No graded assignment for Topic 5

Topic 5 is practice: one class, nothing graded and nothing to submit (no assignment since 10/9; one class since 10/12). eCampus shows current grading.

What this means

  • Nothing to submit for Topic 5, and no eCampus upload.
  • Keep what you make in class (your spreadsheets, your two Word documents and your best descriptions) as your notes.
  • Optional practice at home: the Data Evidence Packet walks the same data again. It is not graded, and you do not submit it.
References

Core sources and optional extensions.

The lab page contains the required explanation. These links support verification, deeper reading, or alternate access.

Topic 5 Lab (Tuesday 10/13)The challenge lab: how to describe a job, the five challenges and their targets.The data pack (zip)Everything the challenges use: an Excel workbook (events and budgets), registrations, sign-in sheets, receipts and two Word files. All made up.The club’s data (open it in the browser)Every file in the zip, in the browser: sheets you can search, the workbook’s tabs, the Word pages, and a “Show the problems” button.Optional: the data-check skill (SKILL.md)General data rules, saved as a skill. Read it before you install it.Optional practice: Data Evidence PacketNot graded, nothing to submit: the same data again, at home, with local draft saving and a worked example.Optional practice: printable packet (PDF)The same optional practice, tagged for printing; not graded, nothing to submit.