Promising Practice: March Madness
A tradition now in its second year, this activity capitalizes on the frenzy around the March Madness Tournament. All grades learn basic facts about each of the 68 schools in the tournament, which helps students broaden their knowledge of colleges across the country and the variety of postsecondary options available. In addition, high school students learned how to make brackets, while junior high students participated in a Jeopardy tournament with categories like "Majors" and "Mascots".
An easy and inexpensive activity that can be continued and expanded each year, the students got in on the competitive action of the tournament:
Jeopardy is really fun! It's great to get to play with your classmates! It's fun to learn about other colleges! It gives you a heads up on colleges you might want to go to!
I like it! I think it's fun! I get to learn about all the different mascots!
It's fun to be competitive with other people. Playing Jeopardy we get to learn about colleges we might want to go to in the future.
Students also had time in computer labs to do further research about one of the 68 schools and were expected to write a short paper about their interest or lack of interest in attending that school.
