My daughter takes part in many extra curricular activities at school. One day, she came to me and expressed a desire to join the oceanography club at school. Did I mention she was a sixth grader at the time? In order to try out for the team, she was required to read several chapters in the assigned textbook and take an exam over the content. Did I mention she was competing with seventh and eighth graders? I thought it was a long shot, but ever the encouraging mom, I decided to make the learning experience fun. I created a ‘Jeopardy’ game using PowerPoint. It took me a while to figure out the ins and outs of construction, but in the end I was satisfied with a great game!
1. Open up PowerPoint
2. Create your title slide
3. Click New Slide
4. Click Insert and select Table
5. Highlight the amount of columns and rows you need in your table. This is really dependent upon how many questions you would like in your game. Don’t forget to include your titles for each column. Just click the appropriate place and type away. Also, assign each subsequent square a point value. Don’t bother to underline the point assignments. The underlining will appear when you link each point value to its question in a later step.
6. Drag the corners of the table to have it cover the entire slide
7. Click New Slide again until you have one slide for each question. Each slide you create will have a ‘Click to add title’ box and a ‘Click to add text’ box by default. I put the point value for the question in the ‘Click to add title’ box. The question (or should I say answer?) is placed in the ‘Click to add text’ box. Allow your question to word wrap in its place. In other words, don’t hit [Enter] until you are ready to type in the answer. Don’t forget to phrase it in the form of a question!
8. Next, click on Animations and choose By 1st Level. There are several options available Fade, Wipe, or Fly In, etc. I choose Fade By 1st Level.
9. Once you have written all of your questions, go back to the table you created. If you had a title slide, this should be slide number 2. If not, it should be slide number 1.
10. Here comes the fun part! I am kidding-it is a bit tedious and time consuming. However, anything worth creating takes a little time right?
11. Highlight the first point value square in your table. Click Insert. Click Hyperlink. A window will open up. The left side of the window gives you several options. Choose ‘Place in This Document.’ Next, select the corresponding slide for the question you previously created. Your linked slide will preview so you can be certain you are selecting the right slide.
12. Click OK. The point value should now be underlined as a hyperlink to the appropriate slide.
13. To double check the link, click Slide Show, Select ‘From Current Slide,’ and click on the underlined hyperlink. PowerPoint should show the correct linked question.
14. To return to constructing your game, hit [Esc].
15. Repeat the procedure until all of the game point values in your table are linked to a corresponding slide for a question.
16. Now one last thing, each question slide needs a way to get back to the game board to select another question. So, click Insert, click Shapes, Select an Action Button. I chose a house. Click on your slide and a standard size of the shape you selected will appear. A window titled ‘Action Settings’ will also appear. The ‘Hyperlink to:’ option should already be selected by default. Use the drop down menu to find ‘Slide’ and click on it. Another window titled ‘Hyperlink to Slide’ will appear. Select the slide that corresponds to the game board slide. Click OK and then Click OK again. Position your action button where you want it on the slide. Move the shape where you want it. Now copy the action button. You can do this by right clicking on it and selecting ‘Copy’ or you can select the action button and hit [Ctrl] + [C].
17. Now click on each question slide and paste in your action button. The formatting will still be there for the action button. Therefore, there is no need to link the action button again to the table. Continue until all of the questions have an action button that links back to the main game board.
I recommend taking time out to test all of the links. You can certainly get as creative as you would like with designing your game. I embedded sounds, added pictures and changed the design scheme to questions as well. This is a great educational tool for students and teachers.
I had tried initially to download a premade game on the internet and ended up getting a virus. Once you have one game designed, it is easy to make others. Just replace the questions with new ones. You shouldn’t have to do any linking if you just insert new questions and select Save As. Then, just name your new game something else.
One last thing, if you are using PowerPoint 2010, your game board links will change color after you select them so you know where you have been. If you are using PowerPoint 2007, you will have to keep track. Unfortunately, the hyperlinks do not change color. I recommend printing the slide with the table and crossing out the ones you have been to so you don’t return again. I researched this issue and it is a glitch that I was not able to find a work around for.
You may be wondering what happened with my daughter; she made the team….
