Resource 4: Information for Who Wants to be a Science Millionaire?

The real TV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? has 15 questions. So that the game is not overly long in the classroom context, this is reduced to ten questions standing between your students and a (pretend!) million-dollar prize fund!

Each question is presented in a multiple choice format with one of the four choices being the only correct answer.

As the student progresses through the game, the questions become more difficult. Each question attracts a specific amount of money. The harder the question, the more money they win. Unfortunately for your students, unlike the TV show, they are only playing for prestige rather than real money.

Table R3.1 shows how much money each question is worth (using dollars). You can vary these amounts to suit your own classes.

Table R3.1 Value of each question in ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’

There are two safe levels, one at $1,000 and the other at $2,50,000. Once reached, your students cannot win less than that (imaginary!) amount. They can quit the game at any time and collect their winnings.

If the student gets the answer wrong or cannot provide an answer, they are eliminated from the game and the next student steps in. The new student starts over from scratch with a new set of questions.

Your students have three 'lifelines' at their disposal if they get stuck. They can use each lifeline only once during the course of the game, so they must not squander them. The lifelines are:

• Ask the audience: Your other students are asked to put their hands up for the correct answer. The risk with this is that they may not know, or may suggest an incorrect answer on purpose.
• 50/50: You as the teacher randomly remove two incorrect answers, leaving the correct answer and one incorrect answer.
• Ask a friend: The student can pick one classmate to suggest the correct answer.