John Harkless, PhD, associate professor of chemistry at Howard, recently competed on the “Jeopardy!” professors tournament, which aired December 6-17. In preparation for the game show, he studied previous questions, noted patterns, and brushed up on trivia in areas he was less familiar with, such as opera and geography.
“Thanks to some less-than-perfect betting, I didn’t get as far as I would have liked, but I gained a unique collection of new colleagues from schools and disciplines I never would have imagined when I started this whole thing,” Harkless said.
Harkless volunteers as coach for the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge (HCASC), an academic quizbowl for historically Black colleges and universities. His advice for anyone interested in competing on “Jeopardy!” and similar quiz games: “Broaden your knowledge about things unrelated to coursework that you find interesting, and just focus on the clue in front of you in the moment.”
Article ID: 651