week 11: Upward Bound Jeopardy!!

I had the privilege of assisting with a zoom event for the TRiO Upward Bound Program (at my undergraduate institution)’s Friday session this afternoon. Upward Bound is a federally funded program established in 1968 as part of President Johnson’s War on Poverty. It services high school students who will be the first in their families to attend college. Their programming is currently virtual and once a month they host Friday’s sessions for their participants on different topics. Today’s session was a fun jeopardy game.

The game was created from the website Jeopardy Labs and consisted of the categories Algebra, Geometry, Biology, Chemistry, English, Grammar, Statistics and History. We split into six different breakout rooms and each room had about nine students. We played for about 40 minutes. It was really fun! And I’d like to explore if this is something possible to create for the students on my team as a fun option evening activity as my district is the anomaly in Michigan and virtual the entire year.

One thing that struck me was with such a large group of people on the call (over 70) there were a lot of technological logistics to consider and plan for. I received a lengthy email a few days ago with detailed instructions and all the volunteers met on the Zoom call 45 minutes before we started to iron out the game plan. The most immediate issue was that the host forgot to give breakout room hosts the ability to screen share. After a quick text and some moments of waiting, that got sorted out.

Upward Bound is very close to my heart and it was special to be able to help tonight.