Jeopardy

This past week was my very last week of classes before the start of terminal exams for Term 1.  It is still unbelievable for me that I have been in Tanzania for over 11 months now, and we are just about done with the first term!!

Originally, Mwatisi’s school closing date was supposed to be the 24th of May, meaning that the last week before school closed (May 17 – 24) was supposed to be our week of terminal exams.  Of course, since this is Tanzania and things rarely ever go according to plan, there was a schedule change and the Mbeya regional competitions are scheduled for that last week and so exams were moved up to May 10 – 16.  Although that means I will be done with teaching earlier and will just be marking test papers the last week, that also means I was short one week of teaching!  Seeing as I already made the terminal exams for all of my classes, I was pressed for time in trying to make sure I covered everything that would be on the test.  It was a stressful couple of weeks, as I was making sure my students were getting the information and entering classes whenever teachers were absent or unavailable (which happens quite a lot, unfortunately).  Just in time, I was able to teach everything that would be on the terminal exams, and even had some time left over for review!

Now of course, I like to finish off the term with a bit of pizazz, so instead of JUST reviewing with my students, you guessed it – WE PLAYED JEOPARDY!  :D  I knew every single one of my students was getting more and more skittish as the days drew closer to the end of term (as was I), so why not make it a little more interesting for them by reviewing for the exams with an interactive game?

For my Form I Math and Form III and IV Chemistry students, I had five categories and three questions (100, 200, and 300 points) for each category.  For my Form III and IV Physics students, I decided to have six categories and two questions (100 and 200 points) for each category.  The math categories were Numbers, Fractions, Decimals and Percentages, Conversions, and Word Problems.  The chemistry ones were Molecules, The Mole, Chemical Equations, Acids and Bases, and Hardness of Water.  The physics categories were Archimedes’ Principle and Law of Flotation, Vectors and Relative Motion, Friction, Reflection, Refraction, and Colour.  For my larger classes (Form I), I split my students up into six teams and they were able to choose their team names, all of which were football (soccer) teams, such as Arsenal, Simba, and Chelsea.  Of course, this was to be expected because Tanzanians LOVE football, especially the premier league.  My Form III had more variety in their team names, though one of the four teams still ended up being Manchester United.  :)  I only have six students in Form IV Physics and Chemistry, so we just went about Jeopardy on an individual basis.

As an incentive, I told my students that whichever team or persons that earned the most points at the end of the game (which was when there were no more questions left) would be the winner and would receive a prize from me.  Instead of giving them a physical prize like candy or pencils, I told them that I would give the winning team extra points on their terminal exam.  They all of a sudden became very attentive to the rules and more enthusiastic than usual.  To be honest, I absolutely loved my last week because it was fun and interactive for me, but most of all, for my students.  The thing I was the most ecstatic about was their enthusiasm!  I have NEVER seen my students so excited to come to class, that when they saw me walking towards their classroom, they literally ran to their seats and rearranged themselves into their teams and sat quietly waiting for my instructions.  I was like a dream come true!  My students even tried to get me to continue the game through their other subjects, but we made a compromise that we would finish the game another day.

Each team designated a scribe and whichever team finished first had to hold up their answer and keep it up the entire time until the other groups finished.  I would award the points to whichever team was the first to have the correct answer.  If no team had the correct answer, I gave the points to Team “Madam Belle” (me).  After the points were awarded for each question, we went over the solutions.  If the students got the correct answer, I had them come up to the board to explain it to the rest of the class (in English).

Form III Chemistry Jeopardy Layout

Jeopardy scoreboard, points, and question

It took approximately two 80-minute periods for each class to finish each game, but it was entirely worth it.  I was able to review with my students the types of questions that would be on their terminal exams and it forced my students to work together in teams and try to answer the question as quickly and correctly as possible.  My counterpart came into watch one of the games and even wanted me to teach him the rules and how to play!  I had a blast, and I cannot wait to play Jeopardy with my students again for other topics next term, but with a new and improved Jeopardy board that I will be making with Velcro!  See, learning can be fun!  ;D