How can the escape room help in education?
The escape room is very popular among students, especially since one of its main audience groups comes from schools. Most escape rooms, like the Time Trap, also offer a student discount. Using the logic of escape games in education is a great way to motivate students to work on a topic even more.
How can we combine escape rooms and education without financial and long-term costs?
Children love surprises and riddles, so they like to develop their skills with playful tasks from a very young age. As with small children, it is also important for older children to have their own story for each toy, as this not only develops their creativity and problem-solving skills, but also their imagination. The stories must be invented in such a way that it is immediately obvious, here it is teamwork, we solve the puzzle by working together. It's also an easy way to develop peer relationships, and an escape room is the best way to do it.
Why is a school escape room good?
In addition to the reasons described above, there are many other positive effects that are proven to be good for children. One, and perhaps the most important, is that he is a perfect team builder. In today's online world, no child will be lonely, even if they play together. Because everyone is driven by their own success, online exclusion is not uncommon. However, an online escape room brings students together as they work together to solve the puzzle. They also have to talk to each other, which is a great way to improve their communication skills. If several people work towards a common goal, it is also a great way to train self-awareness, as it helps to manage stress. And last but not least, we can learn by playing.
What do you need for a good escape room?
Escape rooms have a few key principles to keep in mind in order to educate students. First, you need to define a goal. What tasks must they complete to escape? Then it's time to think of clues that can lead to the final solution through puzzles and different tasks. Then, of course, it can be opened with some combination or access code. Finally, something common to all escape rooms is the time limit within which they must escape.
The goal
We can come up with any background story for it, be it simpler or more complex. A key aspect of escape rooms and education is the alignment of content and curriculum. For example, students may be searching for a lost treasure, but they may also want to track down a small endangered species. Maybe they are looking for an antidote to a virus or trying to find an amulet? When the escape room is ready, it is good if the end goal is to have something tangible as a result.
Traces
Solving the puzzles provides clues that can be words, random letters, or a sequence of numbers. These clues serve as content, or material for understanding and memorization. For example, consider a worksheet with multiple-choice and true-false questions. Put the questions in groups of 4-5 people. Every question and the answer you receive can be a clue! For multiple-choice questions, the correct answers can provide the word that students can use to move forward. For added challenge, the letters can be mixed up so you have to guess the correct answer yourself. It is also possible to create a quiz where they have to fill in the blanks. Get creative and mix up different types of exercises.
Something to open
Many of you have heard of Google Forms. This is one of the easiest ways to create a truly solvable escape room online. You can set the type of "lock" for the question, such as a date, a string of numbers, or an all-caps word. For reference, here is a Google Form for inspiration.
Deadline
Of course, you don't have to create a time limit, but most tests in schools have one, and it makes the whole game more exciting. Be sure to value the time appropriately so that you don't end up with the results of underachieving students who are stressed because of the short time frame. The point is that they learn in a fun way.
Escape rooms and education
Classical teaching methods are outdated, and there is scientific evidence that alternative methods often work better for both students and teachers. Through play, students can develop important cross-curricular skills such as logic and communication, which you can work on throughout the program. Breakout rooms allow students to understand team spirit, especially when competing against other teams.