Skills Lab 3: Office Triathlon
A timed triathlon: format a school notice, build a club budget with formulas and a chart, analyse survey data with sort, filter and COUNTIF, and make a 4-slide deck.
⌨️ Start with your 10-minute typing warm-upBy the end, you will be able to:
- Turn plain text into a one-page document with a title, headings, a bulleted list and a picture, with no spelling mistakes left, and save it with the right name.
- Build a spreadsheet that uses SUM, AVERAGE, MAX, MIN, IF and COUNTIF, sort and filter data without breaking rows, and make a correct, titled chart.
- Make a 4-slide deck that follows the 6-by-6 rule with strong contrast, and present one slide to an audience.
What you need
No computer at home? Print the PDF and practise on paper.
Follow these steps in order
Tick each step when you finish it. Your ticks are saved on this device, so you can stop and come back later.
Typing check ⏱️ 10 min
Do the 3-minute typing check on page 1 and write down your speed and accuracy.
Stations 1 and 2 ⏱️ 30 min
Do the tasks on pages 2 and 3 on a real computer. Watch the time limit, then tick the checklist honestly.
Explore the 3D lab ⏱️ 15 min
Play with the 3D model below. The 🎯 missions tell you exactly what to do next (this session has two labs). When you finish every mission, this step ticks itself.
Fix and re-try ⏱️ 15 min
Go back to any station you did not finish or got wrong, and try it again. Then fill in your score sheet on page 6.
Finished? Check your answers
Station 1 (Words, Page 2): the title "TECH CLUB OPEN DAY" in the Title style (or 18–20 pt, bold, centred); the subtitle centred and italic; "What to bring" and "Who to see" in the Heading 1 style; the three things to bring as a bulleted list; the picture under the subtitle, smaller but the same shape; three spelling mistakes fixed: computters → computers, spreadsheats → spreadsheets, freind → friend; the names Bozoma, Akosua, Owusu-Ansah, Kwesi and Nyarko ignored or added to the dictionary (Kumasi may or may not be underlined, depending on the dictionary); Print Preview shows Page 1 of 1; saved as Notice_YourName.docx in Skills_Lab_3.
Station 2 (Numbers: budget, Page 3)
Cell Formula Result B8 =SUM(B2:B7)388 B9 =AVERAGE(B2:B7)64.67 (64.6666… before rounding) B10 =MAX(B2:B7)90 (USB drives) B11 =MIN(B2:B7)30 (Markers) C2 to C7 =IF(B2>70,"Big spend","OK")copied downExercise books Big spend, Markers OK, Flip chart paper OK, Extension cable OK, USB drives Big spend, Open Day snacks Big spend The total of GHS 388 is within the GHS 400 budget (GHS 12 left over). The chart is a column chart made from A1:B7 with the title "Open Day Budget": six bars, the tallest is USB drives, and there is no Total bar.
Station 3 (Numbers: survey, Page 4)
- After freezing, row 1 stays at the top when scrolling (Excel: View → Freeze Panes → Freeze Top Row; Google Sheets: View → Freeze → 1 row; LibreOffice Calc: View → Freeze Cells → Freeze First Row).
- Sorted by screen time, largest to smallest: P07 (JHS 3, Walk, Kenkey, 6) is on top, then P04 and P13 (5 hours); P03 and P09 (1 hour) are at the bottom.
- Filter Travel = Walk: 8 rows (P01, P03, P05, P07, P09, P12, P14, P16).
- Labels in G2 to G4, COUNTIF in H2 to H4 (column F left empty, as in Session 22):
=COUNTIF(C2:C17,"Walk")= 8;=COUNTIF(D2:D17,"Jollof")= 6;=COUNTIF(E2:E17,">=4")= 6 (P02, P04, P07, P10, P13, P15). - A good finding is true and specific, for example: "Half of the pupils (8 out of 16) walk to school." or "Jollof is the most popular food, chosen by 6 out of 16 pupils." or "6 out of 16 pupils have 4 or more hours of screen time a day."
- Other useful facts if pupils go further: Trotro 4, Bicycle 2, Car 2; Waakye 4, and Banku and tilapia, Fufu and Kenkey 2 each; average screen time 3.125 hours.
Station 4 (Slides, Page 5): 4 slides: a Title Slide (title and the pupil's name), then three Title and Content slides, for example "What We Learn" (typing, documents, spreadsheets and charts, surveys, slide shows), "Why Join?" (schoolwork, ready for SHS, skills for jobs, free) with the picture, and "Come Along!" (Friday 27 November, 2:00 pm, ICT lab; the club meets Wednesdays 2:30–4:00 pm). No slide has more than 6 bullets or more than 6 words in a bullet; text is dark on light or light on dark and at least 24 pt; the picture is not squashed; the pupil started the show with Shift + F5 (or F5, or the Slideshow button), faced the audience and spoke in their own words for about a minute, then pressed Esc.
Scoring (Page 6): 6 ticks per station plus 1 bonus point for finishing inside the time limit, so 7 per station and 28 in total. As a guide: 22–28 strong, 14–21 good progress, below 14 means re-teach the weakest station before Skills Lab 4.
Rate yourself and save your work ⏱️ 5 min
Tick how confident you feel on the last page, then press 🖨 Print / Save as PDF in the workbook to keep a copy. On a shared computer, press Clear my answers when you have saved it.
📝 Format a Real Document
Select paragraphs on a 3D page and use the ribbon: bold, sizes, alignment, bullets, numbering, heading styles, spell check, then print it on a 3D printer. Follow the 🎯 missions on the right: they tell you what to do next.
📊 3D Spreadsheet Charts
Type numbers into a mini spreadsheet and watch columns and pie slices grow, with SUM, AVERAGE, MAX and MIN updating live. Follow the 🎯 missions on the right: they tell you what to do next.
Stuck? Try this
Most problems are one missed word. Look for the Panic Button or Help box in the workbook.
Refresh the page. On a very old computer it may not show 3D. The workbook still has everything you need.
Answers save on the computer you typed them on. Open the workbook on that same computer and browser.
Ask your mentor, a teacher or a friend. Show them the step number you are on.
Going somewhere without internet? Download this session's study pack (workbook, PDF and README). Last updated 30 October 2026.