What’s Baamboozle?
If you don’t need a tutorial, there’s a big free game at the end of this post!
If you haven’t heard of Baamboozle before, it’s a Jeopardy-style question & answer game that can be played from a web browser. It’s good for vocabulary, reading, or grammar reviews. When adding questions and short answers, you can add points (5, 10, 15, 20, 25) and images by file or URL:
After saving your game, you can set up game options to play…
…and more advanced game options. “Partial credit” is only for premium users, but everything else is adjustable.
Unlike Jeopardy, Baamboozle utilizes a randomized question grid. Points are based on the value you assign to individual questions during setup. Teams take turns answering, and with the “Pass button” feature, you can allow another team to steal the points for a question. “Classic Mode” also includes bomb game-style power-ups that grant bonus points, a loss of points, or to steal or swap points.
Depending on the class size, you can have students play individually (2, 3, or 4 students) or on teams. Depending on the content and student level, you can opt to have students discuss and agree upon their answer, use mini-whiteboards, or elect rotating spokespersons for each team.
Conversation Starters: Open-Ended Questions
Though I usually use Baamboozles as an end-of-class review, for my more advanced classes [~B1+], I made a large (64-question) game with open-ended questions. I like to use this as an icebreaker at the start of class to get students talking and to open up about their opinions and experiences. This can be a good way to build rapport by getting to know students better.
Some sample questions:
If you could travel trough time, would you go to the past or future? Why?
How can you make the world a better place? What can you do about it today?
What is a memory that you will never forget? What happened? Why will you remember it?
Check out many other web games on the Resource Links section of this site!
