By Bruce DuBoff

Hello! Thank you for checking out this month’s post from the AASL Best Website for Teaching and Learning Committee. This month we will put your brains to the test as we look at the very cool and very easy-to-create Jeopardy Rocks! (https://www.jeopardy.rocks/).

It only takes moments to set up an account, which is an advantage when time is at a premium.

Every box is Click & Edit, so it is easy to manipulate. Once you decide on a topic and categories, just press a money box and started filling in answers and questions.

This is the screen you get when you click on a money box. Writing questions and answers is as easy or hard as you want to make it. I used this to satisfy my New Jersey SGO/SGP requirement, so I will allow different grades and classes to choose lower or higher dollar amounts. I could have made different Jeopardy Rocks! games for each class and level, but I am trying to make one solution work for multiple situations to save time.

Directions are easy and the game is simple to run. You just press the check for a team if it gets a question correct and you press the x for a team that does not get the question correct.

You decide how questions get answered and if all teams may answer every question or only one correct per question. After all questions are answered, Final Jeopardy begins.

Teams are represented by different vegetables. It may sound corny (all puns intended!), but your students will think it is as adorable as you do. Up to six teams may play in each game, and all teams enter wagers. Therefore, if teams are composed of multiple players, they must strategize,  discuss, listen, negotiate, persuade, and agree to make a final wager.

The winner is displayed at the end of the game and, of course, everyone wins when our students learn and grow together. Requiring students to discuss responses also provides an opportunity for rich, authentic, peer-directed learning that can positively reinforce your learning goals.

Jeopardy Rocks! is fun and exciting. Students enjoy the competition, the team-building, the camaraderie, the positive reinforcement, or all of the above. The standard, free version is very workable and click-driven, although I am sure the premium version contains greater functionality that may appeal to some folks. Your students will enjoy it as much as you enjoy watching them learn.

Written by Bruce DuBoff: AASL Best Websites for Teaching and Learning Committee Member

Author: Heather Moorefield-Lang

Heather Moorefield-Lang is an associate professor at The University of South Carolina in the School of Library and Information Science. To see more of Heather’s work visit her website at www.techfifteen.com, email her at moorefield-lang@sc.edu, or follow her on Twitter @actinginthelib.

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Categories: Blog Topics, Technology