What Is it All About?
Use lunch times to run a game of Jeopardy for participants to test their knowledge about cannabis.
Why Do It?
Games are a great motivator for sparking interest in a topic! Also, playing this game will give you some insight about what your school community already knows about cannabis. From there, you may gear other activities to fill those gaps in knowledge.
How Do We Do It?
Remember that Jeopardy is like a trivia game, but the answers come first, then the questions. In Jeopardy, participants select a category and box under that category. A statement is revealed. Then the participant must give a response in the form of a question starting with “What is…”. NOTE: In this version, teams play in place of single participants.
Work with your team and your adult ally/allies to create answers (statements/facts) and questions about cannabis for your Jeopardy game.
Remember to create categories of answers. Here are some examples:
- Cannabis 101 (which may include definitions and forms of use)
- History and Law
- Mental Health
- Consequences / Potential Health Harms
- Risk Factors
For a game, there should be five answers under each category that is displayed. Assign questions different point values: 20, 40, 60, 80, or 100. You can find lots of information about cannabis on Ophea’s Cannabis Education Resource Database.
Decide when you will host your game, and promote it in advance it to generate excitement about it.
Have participants create and register teams of 2–4 people.
Depending on how many teams sign up, determine how many games you will run and how many teams will play at a time.
To start a game, randomly select a team to go first. They may choose a category and point amount. Reveal the corresponding answer to the named category and point amount.
Teams may discuss amongst each other what they think the question to the displayed answer is and write is down on a mini whiteboard or piece of paper.
After a 15–30 second timer, all teams must reveal their questions.
All teams with the correct questions (e.g., “What is ___?”) are awarded the number of points assigned to that question. Teams with an incorrect question gain no points for that answer+question.
Select the next team to choose the next category and point amount. Follow a regular patter so that each team gets an equal number of chances to select an answer.
Consider creating and awarding prizes for the three teams with the highest scores.
Ideas for Use in a Variety of Settings
Use available technology to create your Jeopardy game and have participants play online.
Consider having participants play alone or in teams.
Use your school media platforms to promote the event and share results.
Use available technology to host a “Family Jeopardy Night.”
What Else Do We Need?
- Jeopardy answers and questions and a display (board, poster paper, or technology such as a whiteboard)
- Advertising and promotion materials (for example, morning announcements or flyers posted around the school)
- Whiteboards and dry-erase markers or paper and markers
- List of registered teams of 2–4 participants
- Scorekeeper to keep track of team points
- Money from fundraising for materials
- Prizes for highest-scoring teams
- Display for game: a projector and screen, poster materials, whiteboard, interactive whiteboard, or blackboard
How Do We Get Creative?
Investigate online applications that might help you create and run your game.
Invite an expert in to answer participants questions about cannabis either during or at the end of the game.
Run a Cannabis Jeopardy week and have a game of champions at the end of the week. Have the top team from each day compete for the title of Jeopardy Champion.
Competitive variation: Instead of setting a timer, the first team to raise their hand or whiteboard gets to share their question to the answer on the game display. If two teams raise their hand at the same time, then they must do Rock, Paper, Scissors. The winning team gets to share their answer first. If they have the correct question, they get all of the points and choose the next category and point amount. If they get the wrong answer, however, they lose the points, and another team may have an attempt.