Fossil Jeopardy

Leigh Fall, SUNY College at Oneonta

This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Peer Reviewed Teaching Activities collection.

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection

This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are

Scientific Accuracy
Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
Pedagogic Effectiveness
Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page

For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html.

This page first made public: Jun 3, 2014

Summary

This activity is an invertebrate fossil review in the format of Jeopardy to provide a fun opportunity for students to prepare for their fossil practical.

Paleoecology | College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16)

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Context

Audience

This activity is used in an undergraduate required course in paleontology (300-level) for geology majors. This activity can be modified for any geology class.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

This activity is used to review invertebrate fossils in preparation for a practical.

How the activity is situated in the course

This activity is a stand-alone exercise during a lab or lecture prior to the practical.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

The goal of the activity is to provide an opportunity for students to practice their identification skills of fossil invertebrates.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Students assess their knowledge on fossil invertebrates.

Other skills goals for this activity

Students work together to answer questions.

Description and Teaching Materials

Students divide into teams and use their notes to answer questions on fossil invertebrates in a Jeopardy format. The Jeopardy game is setup in Powerpoint. There is a double daily and final Jeopardy question.
Fossil Jeopardy (PowerPoint 13.2MB Jun3 14)

Teaching Notes and Tips

Once the Jeopardy game is setup, it is fairly easy to tailor it. The hardest part is finding pictures that have a scale or high resolution. I don't usually time questions unless I see that teams are taken too long. Because it is a review, I try to give all teams a chance to play. The students really enjoy the game and appreciate the opportunity to test their knowledge before the practical. They keep score and are quite competitive with each other. I have not given out a prize to the winning team, but there is the option to do so. There is usually one team that wins the game.