This is Jeopardy!

Abstract

Topic/Problem Statement Keeping students interest in class can be challenging. Therefore, its incumbent upon us as educators to find unique and creative ways to deliver course material. Delivering course material in the form of a game, in the classroom setting, is a great way to engage students. Students typically display a high interest in games (Siko, Barbour, & Toker, n.d.) and playing games in the classroom enhances students critical thinking skills and stimulates their interest (Chow, Woodford, & Maes, 2011). In this presentation, I'll discuss how using a game (in this case, Jeopardy) in the classroom leads to an enjoyable time for both students and the instructor. Context UNIV 101 serves as an introductory success course for incoming freshman at the University of Southern Indiana. In this course, students are introduced to a variety of topics related to the university and the particular college which their major belongs. Given that UNIV 101 is taken during the students first semester in college, new freshman students are understandably adjusting and acclimating to the all-encompassing college life. This provides a great time for faculty to introduce college in a fun and creative way while also assessing how much information students have retained from the course. Approach During one of the class sessions, as a way to assess how much the students had learned from UNIV 101 of both health profession topics and university centric topics, a Jeopardy game was devised using Microsoft PowerPoint. Great care was used to model the game as much as possible to the real game. For example, an introductory Jeopardy slide played the introduction music, five categories were used during game play and a final Jeopardy round including the widely known theme music was incorporated into the game. Given that there were 24 students in the class, students were placed into three groups These three groups worked collaboratively within their group to answer the questions. Instead of a buzzer which participants use to indicate they know the answer, students raised their hand. The game itself was displayed on a white dry erase board via a projector. This allowed the instructor to x out questions with a dry erase marker after they had been selected (to prevent re-selection of a question). Reflection/ Lessons Learned Students appreciated the format of the game and became very competitive during play, which spoke to their high level of comprehension of the information discussed in the course. The students also worked very well within their groups while trying to answer the questions. This speaks to the level of cohesion and collaboration group games can bring to the classroom. Freshman come to the university not knowing many of their fellow classmates. Playing group games in the classroom allow students to meet and interact with each other. By building relationships with other students, a students ability to be successful in college greatly increases. References Chow, A. F., Woodford, K. C., & Maes, J. (2011). Deal or No Deal: Using games to improve student learning, retention and decision-making. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 42(2), 259264. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2010.519796 Siko, J. P., Barbour, M. K., & Toker, S. (n.d.). Beyond Jeopardy and Lectures: Using Microsoft PowerPoint as a Game Tool to Teach Science. 19.