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Joseph J. Grabowski and Michelle L. Price
Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260

To enable more faculty to use another component of active learning in their multimedia-equipped classrooms, we have developed a comprehensive Sciences Jeopardy! Games Web site. Jeopardy! is a unique way to help students master the content of their local course (1). For faculty, Jeopardy! is an engaging, alternative exercise that can enliven lectures or recitations. Our freely accessible Web site offers a number of complete Jeopardy! games for organic chemistry, general chemistry, and biochemistry (both in Web-accessible or zipped, downloadable formats). In addition to a constantly growing number of ready-to-play games, the Web site contains extensive instructions on browser requirements and game play recommendations. It also contains numerous creation aids such as game design templates, ChemDraw and PowerPoint templates for converting the designed questions into the format needed for the html-coded game, as well as blank Jeopardy! games. Several documents are posted that walk the user through each process. (Effectively, one creates a gif of the answer that is displayed on the Jeopardy! board, and then names and files it according to a recipe.) For the more experienced Web programmer, adaptation of the html template files is straightforward in order to include molecular animations (for example, Chime images), sound, or other Web-accessible enhancements.

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Figure 1. Two screen captures of a science Jeopardy! game. (a) The Double Jeopardy! game board, from Organic Game #4: Final Exam Review, Chaps 1–11 of Jones’s text (2); (b) The displayed “answer board” for the 400-point entry of the “Starting Materials” category.

There are a number of reasons why one might use Jeopardy! in a classroom. The reason we find most compelling is that the Jeopardy! format challenges the students to use their chemical knowledge in a different way from what they normally experience, because they must pose the question once they see the answer. Integrating Jeopardy! into the course depends on the individual instructor and the course; our experience is that it is incorporated naturally and easily as a day-one review in lecture or a pre-exam review in recitation. Although we have not tried it yet, we are intrigued about the possibility of using a carefully constructed Jeopardy! game to teach new material. We have found that students create useful new games for a small number of extra credit points, an exercise that helps them learn and better understand the chemistry themselves. How Jeopardy! is conducted may be dictated by class size; we have found that A, B, C, D letter cards held up by each individual work well in a 250-seat lecture hall for a multiple choice Jeopardy! game, and that a rotating team spokesman works for three teams in a 100-student recitation.

Literature Cited

1. For other Jeopardy!-style games previously published in this Journal, see Keck, M. V. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77, 483; Deavor, J. P. J. Chem. Educ. 1996, 73, 430; and Scarpetti, D. J. Chem. Educ. 1991, 68, 1027.
2. Jones, M. Organic Chemistry, 2nd ed.; Norton: New York, 1997.

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