Playing ‘Jeopardy!' at school

Fifth-grade students at Ontiveros Elementary School got a taste of celebrity Wednesday when a member of the “Jeopardy!” Clues Crews visited their classroom.

Hosted by Clues Crew member Cheryl Farrell, the class played a rousing game of Classroom Jeopardy, the electronic version of the popular quiz show.

Classroom Jeopardy mirrors its television counterpart, but allows teachers to tailor questions to whatever subject their students are studying.

Andy Barton said his class was eagerly looking forward to the visit from the Jeopardy crew.

“I made the mistake of letting them know about three weeks ago,” joked Barton. “It's a great opportunity for the kids.”

Formerly a banker and a wedding singer, Farrell joined the Jeopardy! Clues Crew nearly seven years ago, beating out 5,000 other hopefuls for the job.

“It was divine intervention,” she said of getting the job. “It was something smart and something entertaining. I thought, ‘This is the gig.'”

Since then, she has traveled around the world - including countries such as Japan and Russia - and visited nearly all 50 states filming clues for the Emmy Award-winning show.

Filmed clues are used occasionally on the show when a contestant picks a question and it's posed not in text but by a pre-taped video clip.

However, Farrell's duties also include visiting various school sites to promote education.

As fun and exhilarating as her world travels have been, “coming to Santa Maria was just as great because you get that live interaction and you feel the excitement,” she said.

On Wednesday morning, Barton's class was broken into three teams: The Simpsons, the Fall Out Boys and Girls, and the Griffins.

Although the class initially had trouble remembering to answer questions in the “Jeopardy!” format, asking a question with the phrase “What is” in front of the answer, they eventually got the hang of it.

“What is Louisiana?” called out a student in response to the “answer,” Baton Rouge is the capital of this state.

As the morning came to a close, it was time for the Final Jeopardy! portion of the game.

The category was “Weather Words,” a recent science unit the class had studied.

“What is the name of the cycle where runoff flows into a river and to the ocean ... evaporates, and comes down again?” Farrell asked.

Each group huddled together as the familiar tune for Final Jeopardy! ticked the seconds away.

Finally, the time was up.

Each group answered correctly - the water cycle - but, having racked up the most points in the game, it was the Simpsons who took home the glory.

“It was fun,” said student Jesus Garcia. He said he liked being able see that “he learned some stuff.”

Julie Lainez, Jesus' classmate, said the best part of the game was being under the gun.

“I like when you had a couple of seconds to answer,” she said.

After the game, the equipment for Classroom Jeopardy was donated to Ontiveros.

Principal Margaret Ontiveros said she plans to take the game to a staff meeting.

“They'll be able to see how easy it is to run the hardware and develop their own questions,” she said.

As for Barton, he said he plans to use the game again in his classroom.

“It's a great way to prepare for tests,” he said.

Natalie Ragus can be reached at 347-4580 or nragus@santamariatimes.com.

November 1, 2007