KLEIN's
GUIDE TO
SCIENCE EDUCATION
PHOTO CREDIT: Nadene Klein at Tuolumne Meadows Yosemite National Park
Escape Rooms are all the rage. Good teachers learn how to adapt pop culture like this to increase student engagement.
So I've never been in an escape room, but I've seen one on TV. (Thank goodness for "The Big Bang Theory." I had the chance to go to a training at an NSTA conference last spring. However, the session was so popular that it was filled by the time I arrived. I probably would have been justified at this point to abandon the notion of setting up my classroom as an escape room because I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Nonetheless, I decided to give it a try. It helps that my students, my school, and my administration are very supportive of me taking risks and it felt safe to do so. If you are in the dark, an escape room is an experience whereby the participants try to work through clues, one leading to the next, to try and escape the room in which they are locked. For the classroom, teachers cannot literally lock students in the room, so it is more about using the same type of clues to find the combination to a lock which holds the prize used in place of the release from the room. Clues can be information to lead to the next clue, a puzzle to solve, a hint at the combination of the lock, the location of the hidden prize, or a blend of these. Clues should be challenging, but not beyond the skill level of the participants. In an actual escape room, the participants collaborate for their mutual release. In a classroom escape room, you can add the sense of competition by dividing the class into groups to see which will find the prize first. Last spring I gave it a try, and it went well. It wasn't perfect but it was decent. I even invited my principal and got him to observe the action. Then I elicited student feedback. I incorporated their feedback on my second go around which occurred this past week. The experience was much improved for me and the students. Here's what I did/my recommendations if you want to try it... 1. Set your purpose for the experience. I do not recommend this for new learning nor the introduction of a topic. What does work well is using it as a beginning of semester activity to build teamwork, helping students to get to know each other and their way around your classroom. It is also a great review activity before an exam. 2. Choose a theme. This makes it all the more fun. My theme was pirates--students had to find the hidden pirate treasure. I hid gold foil wrapped chocolate coins as the "booty." You can spice it up more by making an introductory video to set the mood or even act it out live for your class. 3. Write your clues and plan where in the room they'll be hidden. If having students be in teams and compete, you need two sets of clues leading to the same place. This is an opportunity to differentiate. Difficult clues for gifted students, remedial clues for students with learning challenges (IEP, ELL, 504, etc.). Obviously you'd pick the teams. Be aware of the space available to you and be mindful of the time constraints of your schedule. 4. Make sure your clues give the combination for your lock. Place them around the room before class begins. (Reset at the end of the current class. If they're reliable your students can help prepare for the next class.) 5. You may choose to give each team HINT cards or PHONE cards. They can turn in the hint card, you help them over the hump, but they have to freeze for a time penalty. Cell phones are not allowed to help with this adventure. However, teams can turn in a phone card to use their phones to look up one piece of information for the same time penalty. 6. Share your instructions, rules, and expectations clearly before the experience begins. For example, you cannot sabotage the other team. Here are some pitfalls that I ran into. I wrote all of my clues on index cards. One color for team A and another color for team B. Some students began scouting the room just looking for their color card without adhering to the search via clues. It began as my fault because one card was visible from its poor hiding spot. Be sure to hide your clues securely. The first time I did the escape room, I estimated it would take 1/2 hour. It took 15 minutes. Partly my students were great at this, and partly my clues were too easy. So be prepared that this won't take the time you planned for. It may go longer or shorter than expected. Have a back up/follow up activity. I used only cerebral clues. Students asked for hands-on clues. A suggestion was to use scrabble tiles that they have to spell a word and the point value leads to a number in the combination. They wanted to do something rather than recall information or think through a riddle for every clue. Bamboozling them is highly recommended. Students loved (surprisingly) thinking they were done when they opened the locked box, only to find one last clue inside before they could get the bounty. Getting an escape room going in your classroom is time intensive. There are now online resources with pre-made escape room lessons that you just download and print. It is so worth the effort. My students LOVED the experience and doing something different. I LOVED the results, reaching the goals of the lesson. Once you have a good theme, set of good clues, and purpose in place, you can use it year after year. That is, of course, while the fad stays popular! Scientifically yours, Nadene
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AuthorNadene Klein, M.Ed. has been an educator for over 25 years. She brings a passion and love for science to the classroom and through this blog to you. Archives
March 2024
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