Escape Room in a Box: Problem-Solving and Teamwork

My Students

Video games, sports, family trips, television, music, movies, social media: They all clamor for students' attention. As kids become more absorbed in hobbies and interests outside school, they learn fewer and fewer critical-thinking and problem-solving skills that are so necessary in our world today.

My students are from a diverse background both socioeconomically and academically.

I teach the highest of the high and the lowest of the low in both financial means and intellectual curiosity. We are a college town that has a sharp divide with few middle-class students to bridge the gap. Our school serves grades 7 and 8.

My Project

Have you heard of escape rooms? The concept is intriguing: Lock a small team in a room with a few tools and cryptic clues with instructions to escape the room within a given time frame. Team members use problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and teamwork to achieve the goal. Now, how can that be turned around and used in education? Breakout Edu has the answer: Turn the escape room into a box. A prize is placed inside a box that is then secured with several different types of locks. Small teams of students receive scavenger hunt-style clues and puzzles to solve collaboratively in an effort to find ways of opening the locks. Some locks are number combinations, some open with keys, and there are even sound and letter locks. Students work together to solve the problems and use critical thinking skills to open all the locks and obtain the prize inside. Teachers can create clues, puzzles, and scenarios, or access ready-made ones through Breakout Edu's website (currently in beta testing). My students need a Breakout Edu (escape room) box with several locks and items like maps and a recording device that will become puzzles to solve. I have also requested a locking box, invisible pens, UV lights, a timer, and a small wooden box with a hidden drawer.

Who doesn't love a good mystery?

And solving fun puzzles with friends to earn a small prize sounds so much more engaging than another class period of taking notes. While the "escape room in a box" itself is an amazing tool, using it in conjunction with a novel will hook students' interest from the start of the unit. Immersive learning games like the breakout box are just what my students need to learn how to solve complex problems with a work team on a deadline.