March Madness fun in health education

Personality Traits in a Relationship in a March Madness Format

This lesson was the conclusion of a three week (7 class period HG&D unit). I wanted to finish the unit focused on healthy relationships.  I located what I believe to be the top 37 personality trails of people who are in healthy relationships.  I wrote them out on index cards and spread them around a table in the health room.  Listed below are the 37 traits.

Reliable
Warm
Fair
Intelligent
Knowledgeable
Conscientious
Trusting
Hardworking
Secure
At East
Emotionally Stable
Perceptive
Even-Tempered
Energetic
Practical
Curious
Sociable
Creative
Well-Organized
Funny
Relaxed
Generous
Flexible
Joyful
Patient
Selflessness
Compassionate
Understanding
Encouraging
Honest
Respectful
Helpful
Modest
Honorable
Courteous
Optimistic
Devoted
Creative
​Happy

I called the students over to pick the personality trait that they thought was the most important and wanted to persuade the class to believe the same.  Students were responsible for writing and introductory sentence, 5 reasons why their trait is the most important (giving real life examples), and then a conclusion sentence. 

To add to the fun, I set up a Personality Trait National Championship Bracket by using the website challonge. This website is great for tournaments and I was able to showcase the bracket throughout the day, move on students that won their debate, all in real time, so we could crown a National Champion.
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When the students saw the bracket they were very excited to battle it out for the National Championship. I knew I needed to add a voting piece, so all students would stay engaged throughout the lesson and they would feel like the decision to move an individual to the next round was fair.  I used the website polleverywhere so we could do a realtime vote and find a winner in 10-15 seconds. I set up one question that said person 1 and person 2. Before voting I would remind the class which personality trait they were voting for when selecting 1 or 2. Students then casted their vote and I was show the results on the SmartBoard and the move the winner onto the next round. 

One class period (40 min) was not enough to finish the tournament, so you should plan for two or more. I would make round two more of a debate style where each participant would get 30 seconds and a 10 second rebuttal. I think the students would really enjoy that. Overall this lesson was really fun to teach and the students enjoyed participating and learning in this type of an environment. Overall they heard over 150 different reasons why and how to use these different personality traits to keep your relationship going strong!