Like many inorganic faculty (especially those faced with trying to teach "all" of inorganic chemistry in a one-term junior/senior course), I have found it increasingly difficult over the years to include any significant descriptive chemistry content in my course. Moreover, I have a constant interest in trying to convey some of the "story behind the story" in chemistry, which in this area centers on the discovery of the elements. I was mulling this over at an ACS meeting one time and happened to be in an inorganic teaching session where Josh van Houten (St. Michael's College) gave a great presentation on using a Jeopardy activity to spend time every week in lecture on descriptive chemistry. The light bulb turned on, and I figured that I could combine both of the above concerns into a single activity (thanks, Josh!).

I've been using "Element Jeopardy!" in my lecture for the past three years, and every time it's a little different. Students seem to be very interested in participating (probably because the points they score turn into extra credit at the end of the term), and I regularly would see them looking for information on the elements online prior to lecture. I would typically devote 10-15 minutes in the last lecture period of every week to a new game. I rotate between students for each question (there's no buzzing in, because I want everyone to have a chance).

The games were broken down by group for the s and p block elements, plus one game just for hydrogen and one game for each of the three transition metal periods. This combination gave me one game every week for an academic term if we didn't play during test weeks. For the periodic group games, each element got its own category (with the more obscure elements grouped together, like Cs/Fr). For the other games, categories were created based on history, usage, properties, common ores (for the transition metal games), and "fun facts." I initially used different Powerpoint presentations to run the games, but I was never happy with the way things looked. Last year I stumbled across the BYOJeopardy freeware program, and it does a great job in writing and running game boards (including daily double questions!). I have included my games and a link to the software below (PC only, see below for Mac options).

The sources of information for the games have varied as I've created the games, and they change a little bit every year. Initially I used our current lecture textbook, which was fine for the physical properties and reactivity of the elements but left much to be desired in the other categories. I dug into some of my history of chemistry materials (particularly The Periodic Table by Eric Scerri, Oxford Press) to find some of the historical details. I have also resorted (horrors...) to using Wikipedia as a starting point for other material on the different elements, as well as some judicious web searching. The absolute best place for "I didn't know that" information, however, is the excellent Chemistry In Its Element podcast (http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/podcast/element.asp), which is an excellent listen (and one that every chemistry educator should utilize). Many of the daily double questions come from these podcasts.

 You will notice as you look at the games that I ask some very easy questions (that hopefully students with a basic understanding of the periodic table can get) as well as some questions that I probably couldn't answer. The hard questions are there more to inform than to be a source of extra credit points, and I've picked them to surprise the students (and I'll provide additional information on the question slide where appropriate). Many times students will say "Is that really true?" or "I never imagined it could do that!" during the course of the game. This stimulation of curiosity and an increase in the appreciation of the diversity of the periodic table (and how we discovered the elements that fill its boxes) is the true heart of the exercise.