“There’s a way to do it better—find it.” Thomas Edison
During a train the trainer workshop in Dubai, UAE, a participant created and facilitated a variation on Jeopardy that I think is very clever.
Seta Tutendjian used flipcharts and index cards for her Jeopardy. Since this was to be a 10-minute facilitated activity, she had to limit the number of questions.
She divided the flip chart into two columns and two rows. The table groups threw their foam dice to determine which group would select a category first.
Then, the variation that I like was that the groups had to: (1) discuss the question, (2) write down their answer on an index card, and (3) bring their index card to Seta. The first group to give her the index card would win if their answer was correct. If the answer was not correct, she would read the next index card.
I think that this approach really improved the game. I like it for several reasons:
- Having time to discuss the answer as a group slowed down the process sufficiently so that those participants who need time to cogitate could actively participate.
- The different requirements (discuss, write, get up and run) met the needs of almost all learning preferences.
- Racing to Seta to hand her the index card gave an additional element of fun and competition.
- Because the groups wrote their answers on index cards, they could not benefit from building off of any other groups’ answers. This separated those who really knew the answer from those who might have brainstormed and guessed as they heard other partial or incorrect answers verbalized.
- It required no technology, so it was simple and easily portable.
- It eliminated any confusion about which group answered first, which can be a very real problem if more than one group signals or shouts out answers at the same time.
It is a wonderful variation that I’m looking forward to using myself!
Thank you, Seta!
May your learning be sweet.
Deborah
