Abstract
Educational escape rooms (EERs) engage learners, develop their collaboration skills, and help them apply content knowledge. While the health professions were quick to identify how EERs could be used to support their unique learning outcomes, basic science disciplines such as biology, chemistry, and physics have been slower to do so. This chapter is a step-by-step guide to help undergraduate science educators design EERs based on the tools that researchers use in their work (for example, models, datasets, 3D objects). Because many of these tools are freely accessible online, they lend themselves to be used in online EERs. The process described in this chapter is designed to be easy to implement. The online science EERs developed using these steps will immerse learners in role play as they use the tools of scientists in authentic ways.
TopIntroduction
Escape rooms are “live action team-based games where players discover clues, solve puzzles, accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to accomplish a specific goal (usually escaping the room) in a limited amount of time” (Nicholson, 2016, p. 1). They are called escape room, ingress room, or breakout box (Fletcher, 2019; O’Brien & Pitera, 2019; Veldkamp, Daemen, et al., 2020), depending on whether players are attempting to escape a room or break into a box.
Educators were quick to spot the educational potentials of this game format. With small adaptations, it provides an engaging context for students to learn. Today a search of academic databases for “escape room” and “education” yields hundreds of results. Educational escape rooms (EERs) have been reported in nearly every discipline. In the sciences, they are used to teach discipline-specific content, to train learners in science communication (Wilkinson & Little, 2021), grant writing (Oestreich et al., 2021), and engage in journal clubs (Foulds & Forbes, 2021).
Systematic reviews have concluded that EERS are an effective way to engage learners (Fotaris & Mastoras, 2019; Makri et al., 2021; Ouariachi & Wim, 2020; Taraldsen et al., 2022; Veldkamp, van de Grint, et al., 2020). They also report content learning gains, which researchers attribute to an increased motivation to learn. Studies report that EERs promote communication and collaboration skills, that they help learners value teamwork, and that they promote an increased sense of belonging. Critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity are also reported outcomes.
Discipline-Specific Affordances of EERs
Allied health professions (e.g., medicine and nursing) are the disciplines that have most embraced escape rooms into their educational practices. The momentum has helped these educators recognize the unique opportunities that escape rooms can bring to training in their profession.
For example, health professionals often work in multidisciplinary teams (e.g., a nurse, a physician, and a pharmacist) where professionals collaborate to care for a patient. Health professionals see escape rooms as a tool to facilitate the development of interprofessional communication and collaboration skills (Dittman et al., 2021; Friedrich et al., 2020; Kutzin, 2019; Moore & Campbell, 2020, 2021).
Many health disciplines use simulations that immerse learners in scenarios like the ones they will encounter in their work practice. This role play helps students recognize when knowledge is relevant and convert theoretical to applied skills. However, these clinical simulations can be unengaging and do not provide opportunities to learn through mistakes. Drawing from those elements of EERs, several health profession educators have created hybrid games that combine simulations with escape rooms (Anderson et al., 2021; Mystakidis et al., 2019; Ross et al., 2021).
Thus, health professionals have recognized the ways in which EERs can meet their unique training needs: to foster interprofessional communication and collaboration and to immerse learners in real-world scenarios where they learn through errors and feedback.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Puzzle: A problem that must be resolved to progress in the escape room experience.
Educational Escape Room (EER): An escape room designed to achieve a learning objective.
Clue: Piece of instruction to solving a puzzle. A clue may also provide information about how to convert a puzzle solution into a code to open a lock (for example, the order of digits obtained from several puzzles that must be combined to open a lock).
Natural Sciences: Basic (non-applied) sciences such as biology, chemistry, and physics. May also include multidisciplinary disciplines such as biochemistry and astronomy.
Lock: A mechanism that prevents progression through the escape room until a correct code is entered. Usually, the code is the solution to a puzzle or several puzzles.
Designer: The educator who creates, plans, implements, and assigns an EER to learners as part of a formal or informal activity in an instructional program.
Solution: The one correct interpretation of a puzzle. Usually, it is the code to open a lock.
Hint: Information that may be divulged to players in an escape room to help them solve a puzzle.
Escape Room: A series of puzzles tied together through a role-playing narrative.
Narrative: A story that provides the setting (who, what, where, when) and the goal (why) of an escape room. It also gives a role for the players to take on in the game.
Allied Health Professions: Careers that tend to human patients to maintain and improve health, such as physicians, nurses, and pharmacists.
Players: Undergraduate students who engage in an EER.