Kenneth Browning

The capstone of the Database Detectives series! Students design, build, and query their own database from scratch over 3 class periods. They choose a topic they care about, create related tables with foreign keys, populate with data, write 5 meaningful queries, and present findings. Includes a built-in peer review component for collaborative learning. --- WHAT'S INCLUDED: - Student Handout (PDF) — complete project guide with requirements, day-by-day plan, topic ideas, and rubric - Teacher Guide

Engage your students with this hands-on SQL investigation activity! Students explore a pre-built video game inventory database using SQLiteOnline.com (free, browser-based — no installs needed). Students learn SELECT, WHERE, AND/OR, and ORDER BY through guided queries, then write their own custom query and reflect on real-world database applications. --- WHAT'S INCLUDED: - Student Handout (PDF) — print-ready, clean formatting - Teacher Guide (PDF) — complete answer key, minute-by-minute timing fo

Need a hands-on way to teach pivot tables that actually clicks with students? This scaffolded lab walks students through creating, modifying, and interpreting pivot tables using realistic sales data from a fictional school store — no dry textbook exercises here. Students build their first pivot table step by step, then rearrange it to answer progressively harder business questions: revenue by grade, sales by seller, category breakdowns, and transaction counts. In the final section, students work

Are your students ready to write like professionals? This scaffolded business memo formatting activity walks students through the structure, tone, and formatting conventions of workplace memos — a skill every CTE student needs before entering the professional world. Students complete three progressively challenging memos: a guided template memo about a retail return policy change, an independent memo proposing a school dress code update, and a real-world scenario memo chosen from three options (

Looking for a creative, no-prep activity that gets students excited about operating systems? This hands-on poster project challenges students to design their own original operating system — complete with a custom name, mascot, slogan, and key features — making abstract OS concepts tangible and memorable. Students create a visually appealing poster showcasing their original operating system. They must develop a creative OS name and mascot, identify and explain three unique features, write a persu

Looking for a quick, engaging way to teach Microsoft Word essentials? This hands-on activity gets students formatting text, inserting hyperlinks, and using word count tools in just 30 minutes — perfect for your CTE or computer applications classroom. Students generate a paragraph using ChatGPT, then apply text formatting (bold, italics, underline, font style, size, and color), insert hyperlinks to relevant websites, and verify word count. The activity builds practical Microsoft Office skills stu

Looking for a no-prep way to teach your students the essentials of Microsoft Word? This hands-on activity walks students through creating, editing, formatting, and saving a Word document from scratch — building real-world skills they will use in every class and career. Students open Microsoft Word, create a blank document, write an introductory paragraph about themselves, and apply formatting including bold, italics, and font color changes. They practice saving to OneDrive or a local drive, then

Looking for a fun, seasonal activity that builds real-world tech skills? This Halloween e-card project gets students using AI image generation and Microsoft Word to create professional-quality digital greeting cards — and they love it. Students use ChatGPT to generate custom Halloween-themed artwork, then design a 5x7 e-card in Microsoft Word. They learn page layout, image insertion and resizing, text box formatting, and PDF export — all while creating something they can actually send to friends

Need a hands-on activity that gets students actually using Microsoft Word's page formatting tools instead of just reading about them? This no-prep activity walks students through real-world document formatting skills they'll use in every class and career. Students review Microsoft Support resources on margins, columns, page orientation, borders, headers and footers, page numbers, page breaks, and tables of contents. Then they create a Word document from scratch, applying each formatting techniqu

Looking for a rigorous, real-world project that gets your Principles of IT students actually mastering Microsoft Excel? This two-week team project challenges students to research, write, and design a comprehensive Excel training book—building deep content knowledge while sharpening technical writing, collaboration, and digital publishing skills. Students work in teams to create a professional-quality training book covering Excel essentials through advanced features: formulas and functions (SUM,

Looking for an engaging way to bring algorithms to life in your CTE or computer science classroom? This research poster project challenges students to explore real-world applications of algorithms across topics they care about — making abstract concepts concrete and relevant. Students choose a topic, research how algorithms are used within it, and design a professional informative poster using Canva or Adobe Express. They identify 6-8 key facts about their chosen algorithm, incorporate 3-4 suppo

Take your students' SQL skills to the next level! In this sequel to Database Detective: The GameStop Graveyard, students work with TWO related tables — inventory and sales receipts — to learn aggregate functions, GROUP BY, LIKE pattern matching, and JOINs. Students calculate totals, averages, and counts across data, connect tables with foreign keys, and analyze revenue and customer patterns. --- WHAT'S INCLUDED: - Student Handout (PDF) — print-ready with all 9 guided queries + custom query chall

Looking for a no-prep way to teach text encoding that actually sticks? This hands-on activity walks students through ASCII and Unicode—two foundational encoding schemes every computer science student needs to understand. Students research the differences between ASCII (7-bit encoding) and Unicode (universal character set), explore how characters are represented in binary and code points, and investigate why multiple encoding schemes exist. They synthesize their findings into a Google Slides pres

Looking for an engaging way to introduce your students to artificial intelligence in the real world? This week-long slideshow assignment challenges students to research and present how AI is transforming modern business — from chatbots and predictive analytics to fraud detection and beyond. Students research three real-world AI applications in business, design a 5-7 slide presentation with visuals and citations, participate in peer review, and present their findings. The structured day-by-day pa

Are your students ready to learn one of the most practical office skills used in the real world? This hands-on mail merge activity walks students through creating personalized holiday cards using Microsoft Word and Excel — a skill they will use again and again in CTE courses and beyond. Students design a holiday card template in Word, build a recipient list in Excel, and perform a complete mail merge to generate customized cards for multiple recipients. They practice inserting merge fields (Firs

Looking for a hands-on way to teach your students real-world spreadsheet and mail merge skills? This step-by-step activity walks students through creating a professional recipient list in Microsoft Excel as part of a holiday card mail merge project — a practical business skill they will use beyond the classroom. Students open a blank Excel workbook, set up column headers (FirstName, LastName, CompanyName, GreetingNote), enter at least five rows of realistic recipient data, and save their complet

Looking for a hands-on, real-world activity to get your students creating professional documents in Microsoft Word? This holiday card design project walks students through essential Word skills they will actually use in the workplace. Students open a blank Word document and design a holiday card template from scratch. They set up page layout and orientation, insert holiday-themed graphics using Pictures and Icons, format text with custom fonts, sizes, and colors, and create placeholder fields fo

Looking for a creative, hands-on project that gets students excited about digital design and storytelling? This children's storybook activity combines real-world technology skills with creative expression, making it a standout lesson for any CTE or computer science classroom. Students plan, write, and illustrate a 10-page children's storybook using Microsoft Word, ChatGPT, and Adobe Express. They brainstorm story ideas, outline a narrative arc with a beginning, middle, and end, generate or desig

TEKS-aligned to CS I and Principles of Information Technology standards. No prep needed beyond printing handouts and having Minecraft installed.

Ready-to-use classroom activity. Includes student handout and teacher guide with answer key. TEKS-aligned for Texas CTE and Computer Science courses.