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The Auction

Teams bid points on lots of hidden worth. Overpay and you lose; spot a bargain and you win.

? How to play — 30 seconds
  1. Set your teams and the starting budget, then list the lots — a title, an optional teaser, and each lot’s true worth (kept hidden from the class).
  2. You’re the auctioneer. Read out the lot; when a team bids, tap their paddle to raise the price.
  3. “Going once… going twice…” — hit SOLD to bring down the gavel. The winner pays, and the true worth is revealed.
  4. Pay less than a lot is worth and your estate grows; overpay and it shrinks. After the last lot, the richest estate wins.
🧭 When to use this, and what to say afterwards

Best moment: When you want students to price their own judgement and live with it. Works best once they know enough to be confident and are still wrong.

What it looks like in different courses

  • CCHUBid on sources for an essay; true worth is scholarly value.
  • CCGLBid on evidence for a policy claim; true worth is how much it proves.
  • CCCHBid on primary and secondary sources for one event.

Now ask them — the part that turns the game into learning

  1. Which lot went for far more than it was worth? What made it look valuable?
  2. What signals were you using to judge worth before the reveal?
  3. Which cheap lot was actually the best, and why did nobody want it?

Do not use this when: Avoid where worth is genuinely contested. The hammer asserts one right answer, so only use it where you can defend the number afterwards.

✨ Make these with AI — no typing, paste them straight in
  1. Copy the prompt below.
  2. Open any AI chat you already use, upload your slides / reading / handout, and paste the prompt.
  3. Copy the AI's whole reply and paste it in the box underneath. Your builder fills itself — then edit anything you like.
You are helping a university tutor turn course material into a classroom game.

I am uploading my course material (slides, reading or handout). Use ONLY that material and write 8 lots for a classroom auction — each one a thing, idea, source or policy from the course, with a one-line description and a hidden true worth out of 500.

Return plain text, ONE ITEM PER LINE, in exactly this format:
Lot | One-line description | True worth (0–500)

Two correct example lines:
An eyewitness diary of the 1967 riots | Written daily, but by one shopkeeper. | 420
A government press release from 1967 | Official, complete — and written to persuade. | 180

Rules:
- Separate the fields with the vertical bar | and nothing else.
- One item per line. No numbering, no bullets, no headings, no commentary.
- Never use a line break inside an item.
- Keep every field short enough to read from the back of a lecture room.
- Base every item on my uploaded material, not on general knowledge.
- The true worth is the teaching point: things that look impressive but are weak should score low, and vice versa.
- Spread the worths widely across 0–500 so bargains and traps both exist.
- Never hint at the worth in the description — the class must judge it.
- Put the whole answer in ONE code block so I can copy it in one click.

⚠ Before you upload anything, stop and decide what is safe to send.Never upload student IDs, student numbers, grades, marks, results, or anything that could identify a student — and never paste them into the boxes below either. Remember that what you upload may not be yours to give away: publishers' readings, textbook chapters, exam papers, colleagues' slides and material you licensed rather than wrote are usually someone else's property. Many free AI tiers keep what you send and may train on it, so read that tool's own terms first. Protect yourself — when in doubt, upload your own summary or notes instead of the original file.

Teams, budget & lots

The bidders

The lots — each with a hidden true worth

CCHUJudging what a source or an object is really worth