Access Challenge/Creating an Access Database

Author:
Curriculum
Area:
Subject
Area:
Sunshine
State
Standard
Benchmark
:

Patricia Janann Nicholson

Instructional Technology
Computer Applications II

Demonstrate the use of sequential and logical planning to describe the tasks, resources, and timelines
necessary for the completion of specified projects.

Demonstrate appropriate use of varied input and output devices, and awareness of file management
and transfer concepts.

Set up several types of database files; organize and analyze collected data; and produce reports for
specified projects.

LA.B.2.4.2-organize information using appropriate systems.

MA.E.1.4.1-interpret data that has been collected, organized, and displayed in charts, tables,
and plots.

Demonstrate effective access strategies and appropriate use of the Internet and electronic
communications to gather and share information used in specified projects.
o

Demonstrate the use of productivity and multimedia tools and peripherals to support personal effort,
group collaboration, and learning throughout the curriculum for specified projects.
o

Grade
Level:
Lesson
Title:
Resources:

LA.A.2.4.6-select and use appropriate study and research skills and tools according to the type
of information being gathered or organized.

LA.B.2.4.4-select and use a variety of electronic media, such as the Internet, information
services, and desktop-publishing software programs, to create, revise, retrieve, and verify
information.

9th-12th
Access Challenge
An Ask and Analyze Database Activity
Nicholson's Lesson Plan Blues:

Directions:
Open Access (Go to start, choose programs, and then Microsoft Access).
When the dialog box opens, choose blank access database.

Click OK.
Another dialog box will open. On the file name line, type Presidents (replacing db1). Make sure you save
it to your student folder location because this is the only time access will let you save your file with a file
name. When you save your table and form you will create in this activity, Access saves it to the location

you designate at this time. If you want to move the folder to another location, you will have to navigate
through the My Computer browser to find your file, then you can copy and paste it to a new location.

Choose your studentfolder to save it to (or create a new folder at this time) , then click create. You will
then be given several options to choose from.
Choose Create table in Design View.

 If prompted to assign a primary key, choose no because the presidential number will be the primary key
in this table.
Type the following information in the Table under its appropriate column. To set your field size, click on
data type and box will appear at the bottom of your field box. The field size is automatically set at 50.
Reset the size according to the field length given in the chart below. The numeric field length is already
set. You just need to set the length on the text field lengths. An example of the first field entered:

Continue entering the information below in your table:

Field Name
Presidential #

Length
Long
Interger

Data Type

Description

number

Presidential order

Last Name

20

text

Last name of President

First Name

20

text

First name of President

Party

50

text

Presidents Party Affiliation

Nickname

50

text

Nickname of President

Year of Birth

year

Year President was born

Year of Death

year

Year of Presidents death

Term in Office

text

Number of terms the President served

Decade

text

Decade of Presidential term

Other Positions

255

text

Other positions held before Presidency

Major
Accomplishments

255

text

Major Accomplishments made during his lifetime

Picture
Wars During Office

OLE object Picture of President

80

text

Wars fought during term in office if any. Write none if there was not a
war fought during this time.

Now you have your table set up. Save your file as Presidential Information following the directions below:
Click File on the Menu Toolbar
Select Save As
Name the file Presidential Information in the Save As text box

Close your table. Your primary key will be presidential number so you will not need to name it. It is
automatically named as your first field entry name. After saving it, close the table.

Designing a Form:
Now you will design a Form for entering information into the table.
In the Database window, click Forms in the Objects Column.

Double click on Create Form Using Wizard.

Select all of the fields by clicking the button with two arrows. You will see that all the fields automatically
appear in the left column.

 Click next.
Select the column layout
Click next. Select a stytle from the dialog box list.

 Click next.
Title your form Presidents of the United States.
Click modify the forms design radio button.

 Then click finish. The form will appear in design view.

At this time you can drag your boxs in the form around to make the form appear the way you want it to. Make
any other changes you would like to the form in Design view, either by selecting and dragging objects to display
fields words or by dragging objects to different locations. To drag objects, you must select them (you will see a
small hand appear which when clicked on will move the object on the page). You can drag out the form boxes to
make them larger or drag them around the form to get the appearance you want. My form in design view is
shown below:

Formatting Pictures Using the Properties Option:

To prevent images you imported into the database from being clipped or distorted, follow the directions below:
Select the picture field by clicking on it. A box with size handles will appear around the box indicating that
it is selected:

 Select properties from the View menu:

Select the All tab.

Click in the Size Mode Field and select Zoom from the drop down list:

 Close the property window.

Save then close the database. Now you can create records for each president. Double click on your form tab
titled Presidents of the United States, then begin entering your information that is found on the following web
pages:

Your form should look like the form shown below:

If there is no information available for one of the form boxes, simply leave it blank. For example, if there was no
war fought during the presidential term, simply leave it blank.
Inserting a Picture in a Form:
Click in the picuture box in the form:

Click Insert > Object:

At the Microsoft Office Access dialog box choose Microsoft Clip Gallery from the dropdown list:

In the search box type George Washington.

Choose the clipart of George you want to use then click the insert button. It will now appear in your form.

FYI: To sort your records, open your database table. Click in the first column, the column that contains the
Presidential #, then click Reccords > Sor t> Sort Ascending:

The American Presidency

Homework Spot/Presidents
Portraits of the President and First Lady
The Internet Public Library/Presidents of the United States
United States Presidents Trivia

Now your records should be sorted form the first to last president.
Assignment 2:
Click on the worksheet below and save it to your folder. You will now generate queries to answer the questions
on this worksheet.
Presidential Questions
A query is a set of criteria you specify to retrieve certain data from a database. You will be graded not only on
your answered worksheet, but on your saved queries as well.
Creating Queries:
To create a query, complete the following steps:
Open your presidential table.
Drop down the new object menu and choose new query.

 Choose design view, then click OK:

 Choose the field you wish to find information about (you can double click the fields and it will
automatically fill in the field for you). In the following query I choose first name, last name, and party as
the fields I wanted to access. I then typed in Democrat in the criteria cell in order to determine which
presidents belonged to the Democratic party. Make sure that the criteria you type in matches the critieria
you typed into the form/table. (More information is given below)

 To move to another field box you can either click in it with your mouse or tab over. We will go step by step
through several questions in order for you to get a better understanding of how to input information in
order to get answers back from your stored data. For the first question, how many democratic presidents
were there, name them, you need to look at the fields first name, last name, and party. Choose these three
fields by clicking in the field cell and dropping down the menu with the list of field names and highlight it.
You will have three fields you need for your query, one in each column. Under the Party field, locate the
criteria cell. Click inside the criterian cell and type the word Democrat. Next, to see the results of your

search, click on the run query button

(looks like anexclamation mark) on your standard
toolbar and the query results for all Republican Presidents will be listed. Name this query Democratic
Presidents. The results of my query are listed below:

 You can also sort criteria by clicking on the drop down list as shown below:

 Save the query Democratic Presidents.

Answer the rest of the presidential questions using the following criteria:

Every question will have a query and should be saved and named as indicated in each questions. You will be graded for each
one.
Inserting calculations can be burdensome, however, with the build button (the one that looks like a magic wand), it can be a
snap. After inserting all your fields, when calculations need to be made, all you do is click in the criteria cell under the field,
then click the build button, and type or choose the calculations needed to get your end result.
Criteria Guidelines:
Is Null-diplays data that is left blank. Example, if you did not enter data in the date of death field, you are saying that the
president is still alive.
The sign > means greater than.
The sign < means less than.
The sign = means equal to.
Not operator-Not T* will find all data in that field whose names doesn't begin with T, or Not 2 will find data whose ID isn't 2.
Or operator-displays data in either of the two fields. "London" or "Hedge End."
#2/2/95#-displays data only on that day.
In operator-displays data in that particular circumstance. In("Canada", "UK")
Like operator-Like "S*"recognizes data whose name starts with the letter S. The * is a called a wild card in a query.