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Do You Hold the Key? Integrating Escape Rooms to Engage Students in Lessons

Introduction | Background Knowledge | Activities | Extensions | Standards

Introduction

The clock is ticking. The team has only 5 minutes left to solve the puzzle and open the last lock to win the game. Tension is high, and everyone on the team is looking for clues and working together. They think they have figured it out with only seconds left on the clock. They all hold their breath as one teammate turns the lock. As time expires, she pulls the lock, and it opens! The team has broken out!

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Background Knowledge

The first physical escape room in the United States opened in San Francisco in 2012. The game idea was modeled after "escape the room" style video games. In the model, players locate clues and objects around a single room. The idea expanded and grew.

Educators recognized the value of the popular game, and escape rooms began to appear in classrooms.

Centered around content and providing students with a problem to solve using their knowledge, escape rooms are an excellent way to keep students thinking and engaged.

Students solve a variety of puzzles to unlock different locks. For example, by completing a maze, the students can figure out the combination to a directional lock. The answer to a math problem becomes the combination to a 4-digit lock. A blacklight and a letter can become the solution to a word lock.

Each puzzle is programmed with content, and students are assessed on their knowledge, as incorrect answers do not unlock the locks.

In addition to the focus on content, students also develop skills in critical thinking, collaboration, and communication.

Escape rooms in the classroom can be physical kits made from locks and toolboxes, completely digital, or a mix of both.

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Activities

  • Selective List of Children's Books
    • The Mystery of the Locked Door by Lindsay Currie (ISBN 978-1728259567) - Sarah just wants to hang out with her friends and solve the town's hardest escape room. Hannah, Sarah's best friend, suggests that they team up to find the town's hidden treasure. It will take Sarah's mind off her family challenges, but finding the treasure is going to be more complicated than the kids think.
    • Escape Room by Christopher Edge (ISBN 978-1788007962) - Ami arrives at an escape room, thinking she will solve the puzzles and leave. She and her teammates quickly learn that they have been chosen to save the world. The players have to find the answer before time runs out.
    • Escape from Mr. Limoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein (ISBN 978-030793147) - The world's most famous game maker is designing Kyle's town library. Opening night is by invitation only, and Kyle knows it will be some sort of game. Kyle doesn't realize that getting into the opening night celebration is not the hard part - getting out of the library is.
    • Escape the Rooms by Stephen Mangan (ISBN 978-1407193625) - Jack thought he was just going to bungee jump at the fair. Instead, his jump takes him through the ground into a series of rooms. He runs into a girl named Callie, and together they face wild animals, challenging puzzles, and countless adventures as they try to make it home.
    • Click Here to Start by Denis Markell (ISBN 978-1101931905) - Ted loves nothing more than playing video games. When his great-uncle leaves him an apartment set up like an escape room, Ted and his friends set off to solve the mystery.
  • Explore resources for using and making escape rooms
    • Dr. Rebecca Harper wrote this article about using escape rooms in the classroom. Although the article focuses on middle school, it includes several suggestions for creating escape rooms that apply to all grade levels.
    • TeachersFirst offers a variety of escape room resources, including templates, creation tools, and access to an on-demand webinar detailing how to build escape rooms using Microsoft tools. These resources can be found on their Special Topics Page: TeachersFirst Digital Escape Room Resources.
    • Implementing a successful escape room takes planning that begins with the goal of the escape room, through completion, and reflection on the activities. We Are Teachers shares a helpful guide to setting up and running a class escape room.
    • Madison County Public Library in Kentucky shares a curated list of digital escape rooms covering literature, famous Americans, American history, and more. The escape room list is divided into categories that make it easy to find escape room ideas by topic and age-appropriateness.
  • Assessing Learning When Using Escape Rooms
    • Create rubrics using AI tools such as MagicSchool (TeachersFirst review) to assess students' participation and understanding of the escape room objectives. Possible categories to include are collaboration and teamwork, engagement and on-task behavior, use of academic content, strategy and organization, and reflection.
    • Escape Rooms are an excellent means of formative assessment. As students participate in the escape room, observe and track their vocabulary use, reading and interpretation of information, and problem-solving strategies.

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Extensions

  • Creating Escape Rooms
    • From Google AI: Common methods include simple digital tools like Google Slides or Google Forms, as well as physical materials such as locks and boxes. The process involves creating a theme and storyline, designing puzzles aligned with learning objectives, and setting up clues to "unlock" the next step.
      • Digital escape rooms
        • Google Slides (TeachersFirst review): Students can create a "choose your own adventure" style room. They can link objects in a slide to other slides that contain clues or puzzles. A "GO BACK" button on each clue slide allows them to navigate the room. You could also use Microsoft PowerPoint Online (TeachersFirst review).
        • Google Forms (TeachersFirst review): This is a popular choice because it offers "answer validation," which locks the next section of the form until a correct code is entered. Students can create challenges, quizzes, or riddles that provide the correct code to move forward. You could also use Microsoft Forms (TeachersFirst review).
      • Physical escape rooms
        • Use locks and boxes: Students can use real-world locks (combination, key, etc.) to secure boxes or cabinets. Puzzles can be designed to reveal the combination or key for the next lock.
        • Create "clue stations": Set up different stations around the classroom or a specific area. Each station contains a puzzle that leads to the location of the next clue or a piece of the final code.
      • Incorporate everyday items: Students can use everyday objects to create puzzles, such as a word jumble on paper, a riddle written in code, or a math problem on a whiteboard that reveals a number.
      • Key steps for teachers or students to create an escape room
        • Choose a theme and storyline: This provides a narrative for the puzzles, making the experience more immersive. The theme should be relevant to the subject matter being studied.
        • Define learning goals: What should participants learn or practice by completing the escape room? This will help guide the types of puzzles they create.
        • Design puzzles and clues: The puzzles should be challenging but solvable and directly related to the learning goals. These can include riddles, logic puzzles, ciphers, or math problems.
        • Create the "locks": For digital rooms, this might be an answer in a Google Form. For physical rooms, it could be a numerical combination for a lock, a key, or a word.
        • Assemble the escape room: Put all the pieces together digitally or physically. If digital, ensure all links and forms are working correctly. If physical, set up the stations and place the locks in the right spots.
        • Genially offers several Online Escape Room Templates (TeachersFirst review) that make it easy to personalize content and share escape rooms.

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Correlation to Standards

  • AASL National School Library Standards
    • Inquire Shared Foundation, Think Domain - Learners display curiosity and initiative by:
      • 1. Formulating questions about a personal interest or a curricular topic.
      • 2. Recalling prior and background knowledge as context for new meaning.
    • Inquire Shared Foundation, Share Domain - Learners adapt, communicate, and exchange learning products with others in a cycle that includes:
      • 1. Interacting with content presented by others.
      • 2. Providing constructive feedback.
      • 3. Acting on feedback to improve.
      • 4. Sharing products with an authentic audience.
    • Include Shared Foundation, Share Domain - Learners exhibit empathy with and tolerance for diverse ideas by:
      • 1. Engaging in informed conversation and active debate.
      • 2. Contributing to discussions in which multiple viewpoints on a topic are expressed.
    • Include Shared Foundation, Grow Domain - Learners demonstrate empathy and equity in knowledge building within the global learning community by:
      • 1. Seeking interactions with a range of learners.
    • Engage Shared Foundation, Think Domain: Learners follow ethical and legal guidelines for gathering and using information by:
      • 1. Responsibly applying information, technology, and media to learning.
      • 2. Understanding the ethical use of information, technology, and media.
    • Engage Shared Foundation, Create Domain: Learners use valid information and reasoned conclusions to make ethical decisions in the creation of knowledge by:
      • 1. Ethically using and reproducing others' work.
      • 2. Acknowledging authorship and demonstrating respect for the intellectual property of others.
      • 3. Including elements in personal-knowledge products that allow others to credit content appropriately.
    • Engage Shared Foundation, Grow Domain: Learners engage with information to extend personal learning by:
      • 1. Personalizing their use of information and information technologies.
      • 2. Reflecting on the process of ethical generation of knowledge.
      • 3. Inspiring others to engage in safe, responsible, ethical, and legal information behaviors.
    • Collaborate Shared Foundation, Think Domain - Learners identify collaborative opportunities by:
      • 1. Demonstrating their desire to broaden and deepen understandings.
      • 2. Developing new understandings through engagement in a learning group.
      • 3. Deciding to solve problems informed by group interaction.
    • Collaborate Shared Foundation, Create Domain - Learners participate in personal, social, and intellectual networks by:
      • 1. Using a variety of communication tools and resources.
      • 2. Establishing connections with other learners to build on their own prior knowledge and create new knowledge.
    • Collaborate Shared Foundation, Grow Domain - Learners actively participate with others in learning situations by:
      • 2. Recognizing learning as a social responsibility.
    • Explore Shared Foundation, Think Domain - Learners develop and satisfy personal curiosity by:
      • 1. Reading widely and deeply in multiple formats and writing and creating for a variety of purposes.
    • Explore Shared Foundation, Create Domain - Learners construct new knowledge by:
      • 1. Problem solving through cycles of design, implementation, and reflection.
    • Explore Shared Foundation, Share Domain - Learners engage with the learning community by:
      • 3. Collaboratively identifying innovative solutions to a challenge or problem.
    • Explore Shared Foundation, Grow Domain - Learners develop through experience and reflection by:
      • 1. Iteratively responding to challenges.
      • 2. Recognizing capabilities and skills that can be developed, improved, and expanded.
      • 3. Open-mindedly accepting feedback for positive and constructive growth.
  • ISTE Standards for Students
    • Empowered Learner 1.1
      • 1.1.b. Students build networks and customize their learning environments in ways that support the learning process.
      • 1.1.c. Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
    • Digital Citizen 1.2
      • 1.2.c. Demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.
    • Knowledge Constructor 1.3
      • 1.3.d. Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories, and pursuing answers and solutions.
    • Innovative Designer 1.4
      • 1.4.d. Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance, and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.
    • Global Collaborator 1.7
      • 1.7.c. Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal.

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