Teaching descriptive inorganic chemistry in the format of the game show, "Jeopardy"

CHED 112

J. Van Houten, jvanhouten@smcvt.edu, Department of Chemistry, Saint Michael's College, Winooski Park, Colchester, VT 05439
A successful non-traditional method to teach descriptive chemistry is to use a series of weekly quizzes based on the game show Jeopardy. Each week, students are assigned to study the properties of important representative compounds of elements from a single group of the periodic table. Students then play an adaptation of the game show Jeopardy based on the study material. This provides a much livelier format and a better opportunity for instant feedback and interchange of ideas and concepts than is possible with a traditional pencil-and-paper quiz. Jeopardy categories include Definitions and Nomenclature, Sources and Uses, Properties and Reactions, with point values – instead of dollar values – according to difficulty; along with a mechanism for all quiz participants to earn points. Details of the quiz format and example questions will be provided.