No matter the subject matter of the class, virtually any concept can be explored through an answer-and-question game of jeopardy. Teachers should familiarize students with both its format and rules before getting underway.
Divide students into teams. The first team to buzz in and correctly answer a question wins the dollar value prize; repeat for every category and question.
Content-Driven Questions
When using Jeopardy as a review activity, questions must align with classroom lesson plans and grade-level learning standards. One effective way of doing this is writing your questions yourself and creating categories related to specific curriculum units; for instance, if your team focuses on weathering, create questions around this topic, so when playing the game with students, they can answer these questions to demonstrate they’ve understood it.
A practical approach to using Jeopardy with students is by giving them a template of the game and asking them to devise questions based on their current knowledge. This shifts the focus away from you as the teacher and onto them – an integral element of game-based learning! Furthermore, it allows them to apply their understanding of content while encouraging collaboration in an enjoyable and collaborative setting.
Students can create questions for any subject area, from biology facts to social studies content. Once these are completed, teams compete against one another to see which team can answer the highest score correctly; their leader is then declared the winner! This activity provides students with an engaging review activity while building confidence as learners.
When playing Jeopardy with multiple students, divide your class into two teams. Have each member take turns answering the questions. When one of their teammates correctly answers a question, their team earns one point, and the first team to 200 wins wins! This can make the game more engaging while giving students an opportunity to learn from past mistakes while working together as teams.
An alternative form of the fair game would involve having the teacher create an x and y-axis graph with one axis labeled “Difficulty” and another labeled “Interest Level” and then having students write questions on sticky notes to be placed on the board by students. Once every question has been answered by an answer key or through another means, its value will be revealed by the teacher; then, teams may keep or trade any old questions for new ones.
Engagement
Students interact like they would on television, keeping track of both their points and those of other teams. This type of game can increase engagement during review sessions that might otherwise seem boring; one teacher who recently used a Jeopardy adaptation to review math concepts found that while traditional games call on one or more teams of students to respond verbally, this variation required all groups respond via written responses instead. As a result, students remained engaged throughout the entire review session without becoming distracted while waiting for someone else’s turn to respond.
Another way to boost student engagement is through using a Jeopardy-style game to teach vocabulary. Have each student write out and attach a review term without looking, then stick it on their forehead without looking. Their teammates may then provide clues such as something pollinating animals feed off of or something that hummingbirds drink until the term can be identified. If they cannot place it within 20-30 seconds, they lose their turn and are removed from the game altogether; the first team that keeps all its players involved wins!
Aim High Young Leaders Board put the fun back into fundraising on March 14, when they transformed Aim High into a Jeopardy-style event featuring Michelle Cody – Aim High’s beloved alumna who stood in for Alex Trebek – as host. Her questions celebrated school culture and history while testing participants on middle school knowledge.
Teachers can use Jeopardy-style games to teach a range of subjects. For instance, Science & STEM Jeopardy provides an engaging way for students to recall important scientific facts and terms by testing them with multiple-choice questions, including definitions, chemical properties, and real-world examples. Partners can join in for cooperative learning practice as they play. Furthermore, Back to School Jeopardy can introduce classroom rules, expectations, and procedures.
Motivation
Bring Jeopardy from television into the classroom as a fun and competitive learning activity to foster both individual learning and team competition. Students can play alone or as teams, and winning each round could result in prizes for everyone participating – providing an added incentive and motivator for middle schoolers while imparting key lessons like note-taking, time management, and test-taking strategies!
Substitute teacher Jim Birge and Principal Michael Navia kicked off the inaugural Jeopardy tournament at Cubberley K-8 School in Long Beach, California. Students quickly took to it, eagerly looking forward to special assemblies each week in which their knowledge could be tested. Since then, Marshall Academy of the Arts, Bancroft Middle School, Tincher Preparatory School, Hill Classical Middle School, and all play host; winners from sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade contests compete against one another for schoolwide victory!
Make a class version of the popular game show simply by creating a series of posters with questions and answers printed on each. Write answers down separately on paper sheets, giving students time to find each station before moving on to the next. The team that answers the most questions correctly wins an incentive prize, such as extra homework time or free lunch in class. Add an element of competition by using a large whiteboard or projector as the display medium, along with a buzzer with an audible buzz when students have completed their activities. As students attempt to complete questions correctly, louder buzzers will increase student enthusiasm. Studies on gamification’s impact on vocabulary lessons found that students who participated in Jeopardy-type games with grammar lessons gained more from them than students in traditional lecture-based classrooms. It appears that the competitive nature of these games had an indirect positive effect on student engagement; however, teachers must ensure friendly competition to prevent motivating negative behaviors like cheating.
Competition
Marshall Academy of the Arts Jeopardy Tournament took place on a cold weekday evening as students waited anxiously to take to the stage. Modeled after popular television game shows in terms of their format and look, this assembly not only engaged students with learning in an entertaining form but also celebrated it through fun-based learning experiences. Since its inaugural tournament at Cubberley K-8 School in Long Beach over 18 years ago, these tournaments have spread to Marshall, Bancroft Middle School, Hill Classical Middle School, Rogers Middle School, Tincher Preparatory School, Tincher Preparatory School, Tincher Preparatory School, Hughes Middle School among many others.
To qualify for the tournament, students completed a 40-question fill-in-the-blanks qualifying test; those scoring highest in each grade (6th through 8th) progressed through three days of preliminaries and semi-finals before entering Championship Day behind podiums similar to the ones used on TV show.
At the final competition, sixth-grader Juan Muldong, seventh-grader Andrew Espinoza, and eighth-grader Anka Trendafilova were asked to answer questions regarding their interests and were awarded prizes accordingly. One question that all three students collaborated on together – regarding US regions – fell upon Muldong alone, who won first prize with his answer and thus earned first place!
Justin Bolsen, a Brown University freshman, won big recently on Jeopardy! Justin Bolsen won the High School Reunion tournament by an overwhelming margin and will compete in the Tournament of Champions, giving credit to both middle and high school Quiz Bowl coaches as well as his peers for his success. Vanderbilt University junior Jackson Jones and Emory University senior Maya Wright will join Justin in competing together, each taking home part of their grand prize pool of $100,000, with Bolsen taking home most of that.