A few days ago I stumbled the idea of a history bee, and, as I am wont to do (not often you get to use wont in a real sentence), I started to wonder what that would look like.
For now I’m thinking that the best format would be in teams of three or four in a kind of Reach for the Top format. The students could, in theory, help each other study for the actual event.
Naturally, you’d need to narrow down, just a bit, the area of history that you cover. Since I do Canadian Social Studies, I would cover Canada, possibly even limiting it to a subfield like prime ministers, or immigration.
I’m not sure where I’d come up with all the questions. I’m picturing doing this with two Social Studies class (52 kids) which would likely mean I’d have 8 teams per class. I could re-use questions between classes, but I’d need more questions still if I had a playoff between the classes.
Motivation is also one question that leaves me wondering. If you could get the kids enthused, this would be fantastic, but in a day of student-centered education, can we get the kids working really hard studying bits of historical trivia just because it’s fun.
I’m not sure how a history bee would work out, but I’m sure going to think about it.