At NEW Leadership™ New Jersey and various other programs, CAWP uses a Jeopardy!® game in which teams of students test their knowledge about women’s political participation and the status of women.
Purpose
To teach facts in an entertaining way and to open eyes about the underrepresentation of women in public office, and more generally about American government and politics.
How we do it
CAWP purchased the officially licensed classroom version of Jeopardy!® from Educational Insights. This version provides equipment and software that mimic the televised game experience, including buzzers and a scoring console; designing custom versions of the game is easy with this system. (There are also unlicensed versions online with varying features, quality and user-friendliness.)
Developing the game
Choose categories that reflect what you want participants to learn. In NEW Leadership™ New Jersey, for example, at least one category focuses on women in New Jersey politics. Because not all game participants may have a thorough knowledge of the basics of American government and politics, we usually also include items that highlight essential facts.
Women’s Political History Jeopardy!® Game (CAWP’s 2014 version)
Jeopardy!® instructions for participants
Playing the game
- Divide participants into three teams and ask teams to choose a spokesperson, who controls the buzzer and states responses on behalf of the team.
- Provide handouts that contain all of the “questions” for the “answers” on the game board. Some of CAWP’s handouts include our fact sheets about women in American politics, and others are documents custom-made for the game, providing, for example, biographical information about people or events mentioned in the game.
- Provide a pencil and notecard for each team. These are used to write down wagers and responses for Final Jeopardy.
- Designate a moderator (“Alex Trebek”) and a judge, who helps to ensure that the information provided matches our intended “question” closely enough.
For time consideration, we generally play only one round, including Final Jeopardy!®.
Conclusion
We sometimes offer prizes, but not of significant value – play money or toy trophies are inexpensive and appropriate as a way of recognizing the winning team.