As a seasoned instructor, I have always seen teaching as a form of entertainment. If you want to keep your students’ attention, then entertainment and education cannot be separate entities. They must work as one! Math Jeopardy is a perfect way to mesh math with entertainment, strengthen math skills and increase concept retention.
Students love to apply inductive reasoning to popular structures of play that are part of their childhood or adulthood. Jeopardy is one of those popular games in American culture that most students are familiar with.
Good teaching has got to be good entertainent
Nicholas Negropante
Math games can incite engagement in all classrooms–from K to College. Educational games teach people about certain subjects, expand concepts, reinforce development, or assist them in learning a skill as they play.
Build Math Jeopardy with Flippity!
If I find a great resource, I like to share it with my fellow teachers!
There is an awesome online application called Flippity. I use it all the time to create Jeopardy games for my students.
It is a very flexible application that can include images and videos for the jeopardy game board categories. You can get very creative with math assessments by turning them into a quiz show!
Below are the directions on how to use the application. My game setup can help you create your own.
I have a FREE Jeopardy template with step-by-step directions on how to develop your own game, all in one PDF file. Read on to get detailed directions below, but feel free to download the resource at the link below:
{Click HERE to go to my shop and grab the FREE Jeopardy Template!}
How to use Flippity
Step 1: Modify the Google Spreadsheet Template
- Open https://www.flippity.net/. Make a copy of this template. (You’ll need to sign-in with your Google account.)
- Edit grey Quiz Show questions, categories and answers to your liking.
- Do not edit any cell with a blue background. Do not delete rows or columns.
Step 2: Publish Your Spreadsheet
- Go to File, Publish to the Web…then click Publish.
Step 3: Get Your Flippity.net Link
- Click on the Get the Link Here tab of the template (at the bottom).
- Click on the Flippity.net link to test out your game.
Step 4: Bookmark and Share
Applying Flippity to Your Math Topics
So how do you play your new quiz creation with your students? I’ve used my games with several math topics and in several classrooms. One of my most popular is the Geometry Review Jeopardy.
I’ve used this particular one as a review to prepare students for their final exam. The game board focuses on the following:
- Quadrilateral properties
- Identify the other polygons
- Finding segment length
- Finding area of the polygons
- Identifying angle types
- Finding area of the shaded region
Getting Started:
Make sure you create a free Google account for yourself and your students (or a Google classroom) before opening this resource. You can access your Google Form at the following link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XpqRkmuzn_rDGfY-H0zq-Ag3_0Fk6lOp8_pa88n-kcs/copy
When you click on the link, you will be taken to the following page:
Click on the blue “make a copy” button. You will have a copy of the Google form on your own drive, which will collect only the answers for your students.
Once you have your own copy, you can:
For distance learning:
- Send your students the link via email or share with them in Google Classroom
- Show the gameboard on a Zoom session that all students can see during the game
For the classroom:
- Show the gameboard on an overhead projector
- Send your students the link via email or share with them in Google Classroom
You can share the gameboard with your students by pressing the green “share” button in the upper right hand corner of the game template. Copy the link and forward to your students
How to Play
- 1) Go to File, Publish to the Web…, then click Publish.
- 2) Click on the “Get the Link Here” tab at the bottom, right-hand corner of the template. Then click on the link to make your quiz show go live.
3) Break your class into 4 groups. Group 1 will kick off the game by choosing a topic and game board value (ex. Click on Angle Pair for 200). If Group 1 gets the right answer for the chosen topic, they can get to choose again.
4) If Group 1 gets the wrong answer for a chosen topic, then Group 2 gets to choose a topic/board value.
5) Repeat the process until all board topics/values are chosen. Team can track their scores under the team names.
6) Once no topics/values remain, click on the omega symbol to open the final question. Each team can determine how much they want to bet on getting the right answer. If they get the right answer, that amount gets added to their current score.
7) The team with the highest score wins.
Ready-made Jeopardy Games:
If you are a high school geometry teacher and looking for a ready-made math Jeopardy game, I have an interactive quiz bowl to use with your students as a fun end of the year review!
{CLICK HERE to get your This is Jeopardy! Geometry Review}
Get creative by turning your assessments into an interactive quiz show. This jeopardy game is a very flexible application that can include images and videos for the game board categories.
This is a challenging end of year review with 8 categories:
- Angles
- Circles
- Triangles
- Segment addition
- Quadrilaterals
- Volume
- Surface Area
It is a thorough review of vocabulary and properties of polygons. Many of the problems are challenging and require the use of Algebra.
Conclusion
Popular Ideas for Math Jeopardy
There are several ways that you can use Math Jeopardy:
- Student Participation: Encourage students to submit questions for different categories as a review for upcoming test. Grant extra credit to students whose questions & answers are good enough to make the cut.
- Math Project: Let teams of students use a Power Point template to create Jeopardy Reviews on different topics.
- Jeopardy Challenge: Create a Jeopardy Game and challenge other classes in your school to a contest, using your class game.
Many teachers use Jeopardy Games as review activities that challenge students to demonstrate proficiency in different areas of mathematics in order to win points for the team. Whether they are done in Power Point or on index cards, they will motivate your students to master the concepts and skills involved.
FAQs
It is a Math review game based on the gameshow Jeopardy. All students are divided into teams of 3 – 4 students/team. Every student will work cooperatively only within his/her assigned team to give answers about different math concepts.
You can make your own math Jeopardy games with applications such as Flippity. Flippity is a free, fully-featured program to make your own Math Jeopardy games, complete with animations and music. Just enter the questions and answers. No Powerpoint or Jeopardy Template needed.
1) Play individually or in groups.
2) Pick a category and a point value.
3) Click on the chosen box for the question.
4) Students must give the answer in the form of a question before clicking again.
5) To see if a student or group is correct, click again for the answer.
6) If their answer is correct, the student or group can choose the next box.7
