Student-Created Escape Chamber: A Unique Project and Learning Journey

Breakouts and Escape Rooms! Scavenger and Treasure Hunts! Have you tried these kinds of learning experiences in your classroom yet?

Many teachers are now creating their own online escape experiences for students using Google Forms. Here’s one example, created and generously shared by Amy van Dyk, and here’s another one, created by Librarian Sydney Krawiec. Both look as if they took some time to create!

Whenever I work hard to create something for my students, I always wonder: Could my students do this? Would my students benefit from doing this? Could this be a product they could use to share their learning or to practice skills?

The answers: They can, they would, and it could! Imagine the critical thinking, research, and creativity that might be incorporated into such a project.

Don’t worry about whether you have ever created a digital escape room yourself! It’s something you and your students can easily learn. Here is one video that explains how and here’s another. I’ve also created a TEMPLATE you or your students can use to get started, and you can get a teacher copy of Amy’s here.)

You can also create virtual escape rooms using Google Slides. This video is a great tutorial and the creator helps with questions in the comments. Students may have an easier time creating a slide-show version.

The REAL WORK for students in creating an escape experience is in the writing of a story (with an unfolding plot), the creation of clues, and the determination of specific answers that will “unlock” each section, assuming all of the above are completely original. The guidelines, requirements, and final assessment could be based on the specific learning goals of your project. A project rubric might include elements of both story-writing and research. This could also be assigned as a group project, with students collaborating to create one escape journey. The possibilities for integrating skills and content across disciplines are endless.

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HERE ARE A FEW IDEAS ABOUT HOW YOU COULD ADAPT ELEMENTS OF THIS PROJECT:

• STUDENTS CREATE A SCENARIO :
  • that is a treasure hunt for something related to your studies (e.g. a museum item, a person, etc.)
  • that is an escape from something related to research (e.g. escape from Mars )
  • that is a journey related to your studies (e.g. different ending to a story)

• STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO INCLUDE CONTENT:
  • related to class studies (e.g. math problems to solve, questions related to a novel study)
  • based on their own research (what a great idea for a research project!)
  • that requires critical thinking (e.g. original math, logic or word puzzles, mysteries, etc.- see this post and this one)
  • that includes some or all of the above

The project can include tasks that take a few minutes to complete or tasks that are much more involved. This article, courtesy of Meredith, creator of TeachWriting.org and Bespoke ELA, explains more about the steps she uses in building a digital escape room.

If you’d like to consider this, or even if you’d just like to try to create one yourself, here is a list of steps that might assist you in the process. It would probably be a good idea to have your students participate in at least one online escape experience before challenging them to create one!

Subscribers to this blog would LOVE to know if you try this, so please comment below!