Starter Activity - I’m the Question

I forgot all about this amazing starter activity that really gets the kids thinking…

Based around the quiz game Jeopardy, it involves giving students a word, phrase or detailed answer. The students then have to state what the question could be.

For example, I might give the students the answer ‘fixed costs divided by contribution’ to which they might reply, ‘What is the formula for break even’ or ‘development, launch, growth, maturity, saturation and decline’ (List the stages of the product lifecycle).

This activity can be made more difficult by giving more obscure answers or answers that could have multiple solutions. Recently, I gave the answer ‘penetration pricing’. Some students said the question was ‘State a pricing strategy’ or ‘What pricing strategy starts low when the product is first introduced’ whereas a more able student said ‘What pricing strategy would be used to try and gain an early share of the market’.

There are a number of ways this can be played.

Firstly, you could have the ‘answer’s’ on a good old worksheet, with the students working through them. However, I tend to have all the ‘answers’ on my interactive whiteboard. I then flash the ‘answers’ up and the students have to write down possible questions on a mini-whiteboard. This idea could also be used via powerpoint using a bank of pre-prepared ‘answers’.

Enjoy….........