Using Google For Education tools, creating charts with your students is easier than ever. But you might wonder if it is necessary to learn this skill and how it might be used in the real world. I’m here to help you and show you how to create a circle chart in Google Sheets.
What are circle charts?
Circle charts are among the most familiar graphs for students new to collecting data. They’re also known as pie charts because when data is represented on the graph, it looks like a pie with defined slices. Not only are they visually appealing, but they’re also easy to read.
Circle charts help us to see data in relation to a whole. Think of it like this: if you’re surveying your class’s pizza topping preferences, you might have so many students who like pepperoni, so many who like ham, and so many who like mushrooms. In this case, the “whole” is the number of students, and each slice of the chart will show the number of students who like each topping.
As another example, you could also use a circle chart to show different genres of books read in a year. In this case, the “whole” is the amount of books read. The pie pieces would then represent the number of books read in each genre.
Note: the numbers represented are not percentages but a part of a whole. So, if you’re gathering data on what pizza toppings your students like, if you ask 25 students, 25 is your whole, and each slice of the chart represents a part of that 25.
Why are circle charts used?
Circle charts are best used when you have varied data. When you look at one as a reader, you want it to be easy to differentiate between each section. So, if your data is very similar – such as the favourite class of your peers being 5 liking social studies, 5 liking math, and 5 liking language arts – each slice will appear very similar.
So, in this chart, while you can easily see that 1/3 of your classmates are in favour of each subject, it’s not very exciting. Too few people were surveyed for data, and the results were too similar.
If you gather data from even more people and there are more options, then it might be a more visually appealing chart:
The above chart’s data is more varied and has more students surveyed.
Now, a circle chart is not the best choice if you want to look at patterns over time or the correlation between two items. This is why it’s important to learn various chart types and what they are used for.
Why are circle charts important to teach, and why should students learn them?
Different charts represent different kinds of data, so it’s important to teach different types to give students an idea of what to use in different scenarios. Teaching charts, in general, is helpful for students because it helps them learn how to gather data, enter data into a spreadsheet, and then find the best way to represent that data visually. They can then learn how to analyze that data.
Learning how to use charts within Google Sheets is very important because when it comes to representing data in the real world, most companies will appreciate using digital charts rather than ones made by hand—in other words, they’re just more professional.
Teaching students how to create a circle chart in Google Sheets will help them understand how data is represented in a chart, see how different data is distributed, how it might not be best represented within the chart, and where gaps might fall within the data.
Even if you don’t plan to use circle charts in the real world, they are still a great way to get used to using various Google resources in unique and fun ways. Students will love having the opportunity to survey their peers, compile data, and find a visually appealing way to represent their data.
How To Create A Circle Chart In Google Sheets
- To make a circle chart, you’ll first want to copy your data into a table. There is no need for column titles. The first column will be the options, and the second column will represent the number of people who choose each option.
For example, if we were to gather data on how students get to school, the table would look something like this:
- Now, to make your chart, highlight the entire table and click the Insert Chart symbol:
- The chart inserted might not automatically show up as a circle chart. To turn your chart into a circle chart, you first want to double-click your chart, and the chart editor will come up. Underneath Chart Type, click the dropdown and select ‘Pie chart.’
Alternatively, you can click on your chart and then click on the 3 dots in the top right corner. From there, click ‘Edit Chart.’
You now have a very simple circle chart.
How can I make changes to my circle chart?
It’s very easy to make changes to your chart. You can change the colours and how you want the numbers for your data to be seen on the chart, and you can even make your chart 3-dimensional.
The following changes can all be made by clicking the Customize tab in your chart editor.
- To make your chart three-dimensional, select Chart Style and the 3D box.
- Select Legend to remove the labels that show the percentage from appearing all around your chart. Currently, the legend appears as labels on your chart. To make a legend at the bottom of your chart, select Bottom in the Position dropdown menu.
- To add a title to your circle chart, select Chart and axis titles. Make sure Chart title is selected in the first dropdown, and then enter your title in the Title text section. You can also centre your title and change the alignment in the Title format section and the colour under Title text color.
- You can also change the colour of the pie slices by going into the Pie slice section. Choose the slice you want to edit from the dropdown menu. You can then change the colour in the next dropdown.
- From here, if you want your chart on a slide or Google Doc, click the three vertical dots at the top right of your graph and select ‘copy chart’ from the menu. Then paste (ctrl-v) your chart into a Google Slide or Doc.
You can paste it linked, which means that anyone viewing that slide or document will be able to select the link and go to the raw data. Or, you could paste it unlinked, which is like putting an image in a document. However, if you plan to add more data to your chart, when you paste it linked, if you add more data to the Google sheet, you can then update your chart to reflect that data.
Using circle charts in the classroom can be fun for students. Learning to do them by hand and then diving into using Google Sheets to create them can be both challenging and exciting, and I hope it is something your students will enjoy.
Learning different ways to represent data is a great way to help your students strengthen their data-analyzing skills and gain an appreciation for numbers and how they can be collected and represented.
I hope this tutorial on how to create a circle chart in Google Sheets is helpful and encourages you to teach them in your classroom.
Check out these Math Resources on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Additional Math Resources
- Interesting Real-Life Math Lessons
- The Grass Strategy – Effectively Developing Thorough Math Answers
- How to Create a Scatter Plot Graph in Google Sheets
- How to Create a Climate Graph in Google Sheets
- How to Create a Population Pyramid in Google Sheets
- How to Create a Histogram in Google Sheets
Related Posts
