When you think of escape rooms, you probably envision adults attempting to solve a puzzle in a limited amount of time.  Escape rooms are educational, cognitive, and learning experiences that provide a gaming experience unlike any other.  They provide educationally enriching scenarios that leave you satisfied, happy, and more intelligent.

Escape rooms for students are all about exciting learning experiences through cognitive enriching scenarios.

In escape rooms designed for young children, students work together as a class, with their teacher, or in small groups to solve puzzles.  After solving a puzzle, students must collaborate to open a lock to “escape” from the room. The excitement around the room is palpable when students successfully open the lock.

How Do Escape Rooms Function?

Any subject area can be incorporated into an escape room game by teachers. The game’s goal is for students to think outside the box, critically analyse the puzzles, and generate ideas and solutions without their teacher telling them where to look or what to read.

Games can last as little as five minutes for a single lock of the day and as long as 45 minutes for more complex escape rooms. Puzzles for prekindergarten and kindergarten students can ask students to complete tasks such as matching beginning letter sounds to pictures, using a UV flashlight to uncover hidden numbers, or arranging objects by a specific attribute.

Some digital clues may include text-to-speech or a recording of the text for students to listen to if they are not yet reading. The puzzles may require older students to solve mathematical equations, arrange words in alphabetical order, read and analyse a graph, or use a cypher to decode a word.

Aiding Students to Success in Escape Rooms

After completing a puzzle, students attempt to open a lock using the solution. If they are correct, the lock opens, and they are free. Otherwise, they return to the puzzle.  It is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate teamwork, taking turns, listening to one another’s ideas, and never giving up.  These pointers can assist teachers in guiding students to success in breakout rooms.

Advantages of Implementing Escape Rooms for Students

• Highly motivational: According to research, most participants are motivated and committed to engaging in playful learning experiences.  Game-based learning engages students in a learning activity, resulting in high levels of commitment (concentration, interest, and enjoyment).
• Improves collaborative skills: Another advantage of using escape rooms include the possibility of coworkers, classmates, or friends exploring and improving their collaborative skills, socialising with others, and developing team morale.  Collaborative learning is a powerful method for improving student outcomes. These activities allow small groups of students to collaborate and share perspectives, discuss points of contention, question and understand the perspectives of others, solve complex problems, and reach agreements.
• Develop Pro-Social Behaviours: The collaborative skill development can be positively related to pro-social behaviours, defined as a set of behaviours aimed at establishing socially empathic and cooperative relationships.  On the other hand, antisocial behaviours are those that are intended to harm and distress others. Other playful strategies, such as gamification, help create a relaxed environment by reducing disruptive behaviours and instilling a sense of control and responsibility for learning.

There is growing evidence that escape rooms and breakout rooms are being used in university education and that this can have a positive impact on student motivation and relationships.

Where Can You Find Escape Rooms?

Google Sites: 

Digital escape rooms incorporate a compelling story into a Google Site. Students must solve puzzles based on the story on the Google Site. They type their responses into a Google Form that contains a series of digital locks. They escaped once the digital locks were unlocked. Students enjoy collaborating with their peers to solve these digital escape room games.  Their interest is piqued by the story and puzzles, especially when they have to race against the clock.

DIY Escape Room:

Teachers can also create their escape rooms. If you’re making your own, think about what content standards or themes you want to emphasise with the escape room. Create a Google Site and write an intriguing story that piques your students’ interest. Then, make a copy of Tom Mullaney’s digital escape room Google Form and create your puzzles. You can share your game with your learning management system or create a QR code for students to access and play after you’ve published it. As students become more immersed in games, their communication, collaboration, and problem-solving abilities will improve.

A much-needed help for students: Escape Rooms

The global increase in recreational escape rooms has inspired teachers worldwide to incorporate escape rooms into their classrooms. As escape rooms become more popular in education, they need to assess their effectiveness and develop guidelines for developing and implementing escape rooms in the classroom.