Sounds like fun. I never used this game. I will try soon in post-conference.
Mariann U
Mariann, post conference is a great place to use this activity. Enjoy!
I always find playing games in a class to be extremely helpful. I think when students are having fun and competing they are more likely to retain alot of the information. I often make games based on popular game shows, especially jeopardy. I've also done games that mimic $10.000 Pyramid, Wheel of Fortune, etc. The students usually have alot of fun with these games and are more likely to participate than when I'm just asking questions during lecture. I've also come up with smaller activities that students can do in groups of three or four. I find this helpful for my first term students because they are learning but also getting to know the other students in their class.
Heather, thank you for sharing the benefits you see of involving your group as actively as possible. Keep up your successful endeavors!
I currently have 28 in my med term class and i just do more in each small group or do 2 teams for competing.
Lisa, that size class is a good one to switch up the number and kid of groups you form, from twos to fours to more.
Hi Melody:
I think it's a good idea to encourage students to switch seats. Students often engage in "groupthink" as opposed to developing their own creative answers to the topics discussed in the team exercises.
I am an online instructor, and one activity that I have added to my courses for the first week as an icebreaker and means of engaging students in learning medical terminology is a "I Play One On TV" forum. In this forum, students are asked to give the name of one TV/movie doctor and also give the medical term for their position and the definition of that term. So far, it has been a success!
April, thank you for sharing this wonderful online teaching idea. Many people will read it and benefit from it. Involving students with terminology in fun and engaging ways helps them to retain content.
What I like to do is have the students teach each other, If there is a topic that has 3 or 4 parts to it, I will break up students into groups of 3 or 4 (depending on class size) and have them do a power point presentation to their peers in lecture form with a Q and A at the end. They like to challenge each other by asking questions to see if the presenters really know their stuff.. I find they like to be creative in there power point and present a variety of information, that might be different from my lecture information. It is fun to see the students proud that they taught the class something themselves.
Jennifer, there is no better way to learn than taking total ownership of the content, and learning it well enough to teach to peers. It is obviously a successful strategy, and I applaud you for it!
I use index cards with word parts on them. break class in half, two teams. If team A picks word part out of hat and can not answer team B tries. One point for each right answer. This way only you are moving around the classroom.
Marilyn, don't you find it interesting how just a small amount of competition motivates your learners? Keep up the good work!
I have found that having large groups is hardest in the begining, so I start out with a game to break the ice.
I break the group into several small groups and have them come up with made-up medical terms. Terms to describe what they see in medicine but don't yet know what to call.
I've had some interesting, and fun times this way. It's a nice way to get people to get to know one another in a new setting. Its also a fun activity for a large group because you get such diverse answers, and it gets people thinking how and why.
Russell, this is a marvelous approach that allows students to make personal connections and learn how terms are strung together in medicine to describe specific things
Making up medical terms sounds like a very interesting idea. Maybe it could be expanded on by having students look up the word and see if it does exist and how close they came with the different word parts being used. Would it work best before or after a chapter is covered?
Large or small groups, it does not make a different with me, I hold debates, discussion,crossword puzzels, show movies related to the subject that I am lecturing on that week. I have even taken my students on field trips to medical museums, science museums, and some small medical facilities within the area. The student seem to take more of an interest,they get excited about coming to class and learning.
I want to get students involved, motivated yet have fun learning and these activites seem to work for me.
Nancy, I would love to be a learner in your class.
Are there any other games that you play that are like Jeopardy that you play with your students? Games that are just as fun? I would like to play something also, but I don't want to be redundant.
I also like to use wheel of fortune. You might try that, too.
