Databases: Performing Searches and Filtering Data

The database lessons incorporate information about our solar system by following two robots from the fictional company S-SPACE (Solar System Planets Are Cool Enterprises) on their mission to find the perfect location to build a S-SPACE City. This lesson’s setting is Pluto. You might want to show and discuss facts about Pluto with students before they take the EasyTech lesson. Your discussion should include the fact that in 2006 scientists reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet because its gravitational pull is not strong enough to clear its orbital path of other debris. Therefore, our solar system now has only eight official planets instead of nine.

For this lesson, keep in mind that the Filter dialog box is accessed differently in various database programs. For example, students can use the Records menu to open the Filter dialog box in Microsoft Access 2003 and earlier versions, and then click the Funnel button to run the filter. In contrast, the Records menu is not available in Open Office or Microsoft Access 2007; instead, the Funnel button is used to open the Filter dialog box. In Access 2003, you can add the Advanced Filter/Sort button to the toolbar to make opening the Filter dialog box easier. Make sure you tell students how to open the Filter dialog box on your school’s computers.

This lesson describes filters using the OR operator, which will show all records that include any of the named criteria. You might want to introduce the concept the AND operator, which will limit the results to only the records that meet all named criteria.