To play Jeopardy in the classroom, split the class into teams of four, put a board of five categories and five point values on the projector, and let teams take turns picking a square. The change that matters: every team answers every clue on a whiteboard, not only the team that picked, and nobody ever loses points.
Below are the rules to read out before clue one, five scoring rules that fix the two problems the TV format causes in a classroom, and a filled 25-clue board for a general middle school review.
The rules to read out before the first clue
The TV show is three adults and a buzzer. A classroom is 28 students and one projector.
- Teams of four: six to eight teams for a class of 24 to 30. Bigger teams carry passengers, more teams make the wait too long.
- One whiteboard per team: or scrap paper. Every scoring rule below depends on it.
- A rotating speaker: a different student holds the marker and says the answer each clue. Without this, the strongest student in each team answers all 25.
- A fixed picking order: teams pick in turn, or by the last-place rule below. Never "whoever got it right picks next".
- No "in the form of a question": it is the show's rule, it costs a correct answer on a technicality, and a room of 13-year-olds will argue it for the rest of the period.
Announce every rule before the first clue
Read all your scoring rules out at the start, even the ones that only apply to the final clue. A cap on the leader's stake that appears at minute 40 looks like you are taking the win away from them, and they will tell you so.
Five scoring rules for the two classroom problems
Classic Jeopardy breaks a classroom in two places. One team answers while 24 students wait, and the team that answers right picks next, so the strongest table takes the 500s and has the game won by clue ten. Each rule below fixes one of those.
| Rule | Fixes | Use it |
|---|---|---|
| Positive-only | Teams going quiet after a bad start | Always |
| All-play whiteboards | 24 students idle while one team answers | Always |
| Last place picks | One table running away with the board | When a strong group dominates |
| All-play final wager | A last clue only the leaders care about | Every game |
| Capped stake for the leader | A final the leader has already won | With the final wager |
Positive-only. A right answer scores the square, a wrong answer scores nothing. The TV deduction exists to stop contestants buzzing in on a guess, and in a classroom it does the opposite of what you want: a team on minus 400 by clue six writes nothing for the rest of the lesson.
All-play whiteboards. After you read the clue, every team writes an answer. On your count of three, every board goes up at once. The picking team scores the square's full value if it is right, and every other team with the right answer scores a flat 100. On a 400 clue where the picking team and three others are right, that is 400 for the pickers and 100 each for the three. Flat 100, not half the square: half of 300 is 150, and you do not want to be doing fractions on the board while 28 students watch.
Last place picks. After each clue, the team at the bottom of the scores chooses the next square. If two teams are tied for last, the one that picked least recently goes. It is a handout on purpose: the 500s go to the teams that need them, the leaders still score 100 on every clue they know, and the gap closes by playing.
All-play final wager. Before the final clue, every team writes a stake, in hundreds, from 0 up to its current score. Any team may stake up to 500 even with less than that, so the bottom table is still playing for something. Read the clue, every team writes an answer, boards up together. Right adds the stake, wrong subtracts it, and no score drops below zero.
Capped stake for the leader. The team in first place can stake at most 500. Everyone else stakes as above.
Here is what the cap changes, with six tables going into the final.
| Table | Score before the final | Best case | Worst case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Table 1 | 3,800 | 4,300 | 3,300 |
| Table 2 | 2,400 | 4,800 | 0 |
| Table 3 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 0 |
| Table 4 | 1,100 | 2,200 | 0 |
| Table 5 | 600 | 1,200 | 0 |
| Table 6 | 300 | 800 | 0 |
Without the cap, Table 1 stakes 1,100 and finishes on 4,900 if right, more than Table 2 can reach. With the cap, Table 1 tops out at 4,300, so Table 2 wins by staking 2,000 or more and getting it right, whatever Table 1 does. Table 3 is still alive if Table 1 misses. Tables 4 to 6 cannot win either way, and no fair rule should let them. Last place picks is their fix, during the board.
A full board for a middle school review
Five subjects, five clues each, easiest at 100. The 100s are for every student in the room and the 500s are for the top table, which is the split that keeps the bottom half answering. For a board on a single subject, the math quiz for middle school guide has 25 math questions sorted the same way.
Science
Earth, space and life science, grades 6 to 8.
- 100
Which planet is closest to the Sun?
Answer: Mercury
- 200
Which gas do plants take in from the air to make food?
Answer: Carbon dioxide
- 300
What type of rock forms when melted rock cools and hardens?
Answer: Igneous rock
- 400
Which part of a cell releases energy from food?
Answer: The mitochondria (one is a mitochondrion)
- 500
What is the chemical symbol for sodium?
Answer: Na
World Geography
Map skills and capitals.
- 100
What is the largest ocean on Earth?
Answer: The Pacific Ocean
- 200
Which imaginary line divides Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres?
Answer: The equator
- 300
What is the capital of Canada?
Answer: Ottawa
- 400
What is the longest river in South America?
Answer: The Amazon
- 500
Which mountain range is usually taken as the border between Europe and Asia?
Answer: The Ural Mountains
Words & Grammar
Parts of speech and figurative language.
- 100
What part of speech describes a noun?
Answer: An adjective
- 200
What do you call a word that means the opposite of another word?
Answer: An antonym
- 300
In "The dog barked loudly", which word is the adverb?
Answer: Loudly
- 400
What figure of speech compares two things using "like" or "as"?
Answer: A simile
- 500
What is the past tense of "lie", meaning to rest or recline?
Answer: Lay (as in "Yesterday I lay down")
History
U.S. and world history.
- 100
Who was the first President of the United States?
Answer: George Washington
- 200
In what year was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
Answer: 1776
- 300
Which ancient civilization built the pyramids at Giza?
Answer: The ancient Egyptians
- 400
Which document begins with the words "We the People"?
Answer: The U.S. Constitution
- 500
Whose expedition was the first to sail all the way around the world?
Answer: Ferdinand Magellan's (he died on the way, and Juan Sebastián Elcano finished the voyage)
Numbers
Mental math, no calculators.
- 100
How many sides does a hexagon have?
Answer: 6
- 200
The three angles inside a triangle add up to how many degrees?
Answer: 180
- 300
What is 25% of 80?
Answer: 20
- 400
What is the next prime number after 13?
Answer: 17
- 500
What number is XLIV in Roman numerals?
Answer: 44
Final clue
Stakes in writing first, then the clue, then every board up at once.
- 1.
Which is the only U.S. state that borders exactly one other state?
Answer: Maine (its only neighbor is New Hampshire)
Plan about a minute per clue once every team is writing, so this board and the final fill a 45-minute period. If the bell is ten minutes away and squares are left, skip to the final clue. A review that ends on a wager is remembered; one that ends mid-board on a 200 about adverbs is not.
Running it in PardyTime
Everything above works with a projector and a stack of whiteboards. What paper costs you is the scorekeeping: six totals, a flat 100 for four teams on every clue, and stakes to settle at the end, while you are also reading the clues.
In PardyTime the board goes on the projector and the totals keep themselves. Each team joins on one shared phone with the game PIN, no account or app, and a free lobby holds 15 phones, enough for a class of 30 in fours. No phones allowed? Add the teams yourself and score them from your screen.
- Take turns: teams pick in order, you mark each answer right or wrong, and after a miss you can pass the clue on. Use this one for review.
- Buzzer battle: teams buzz from their phones once you open the buzzers. The team that gets it right picks next, the TV rule, so keep it for a short lightning round.
- Positive-only: both styles take points off for a wrong answer by default. Open Customize in the lobby and switch off Wrong answers lose points.
- Everything else is yours: each team's score has plus and minus buttons in steps of 100, which is how you hand out the whiteboard 100s. Skip turn moves the pick to the last-place team. PardyTime has no Daily Double or Final Jeopardy, so take the final stakes on paper and adjust the scores by hand.
Build the board above in the free Jeopardy maker, or host a board from the public library as it is, which is free (copying one to edit is a Plus feature). Still choosing a tool? JeopardyLabs alternatives compares the ones teachers use.