In October of this year, I attended an ITEC ( Iowa Technology Education Connection) conference along with Ms. Amanda Eller, Ballard Middle School teacher, at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. It was a fantastic conference with many takeaways about meaningful digital learning. My biggest takeaway was from my last session which was entitled BreakoutEDU and facilitated by Jamie Fath. Jamie asked, "If your curiosity was triggered in this activity, how do you think students will react to this type of activity?" This activity covered the 4Cs (-"super skills" for the 21st Century 1) critical thinking 2) collaboration 3) communication 4) creativity) and empowered each team member with proper facilitation.
As I looked back at my notes, this is the last thing I had typed..."Must implement a BreakoutEDU when I return to school." - Jamie shared with us this breakout room idea and gave us a little background about how this all came about. She went on to explain to us that there are these escape rooms around the world where you pay money to get "locked in" a room with friends, family members, and/or even co-workers and try to escape by solving puzzles and unlocking codes.
Soon after ITEC, I had launched a BreakoutEDU activity with Mrs. JoEllen Wesselmann’s class! Mrs. Wesselmann teaches both at Ballard East and the Ballard Middle School.
General info about BreakoutEDU:
How does it work? These are challenge escape games. Players solve clues in order to open locks and "breakout" of a room. Watch this quick
video from the BreakoutEDU site to learn more: How BreakoutEDU Works
Why play? BreakoutEDU offers players a fun and exciting way to strengthen skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, logic, creativity, communication, collaboration... so many skills necessary to for us to have. Did I mention fun? Playing a challenging BreakoutEDU game is such a fun and exciting way to strengthen skills without even realizing learning is happening.
Who can play? BreakoutEDU games can be played by adults for team-building and collaboration or in class with students. Playing with adults is not only so much fun, but also a great way to have them experience it first hand so if they want to have students play, they understand exactly what it entails. And, giving students this fun learning experience which can be so different from what they’re used to, sparks a new energy and excitement for them.
What subjects can you use these games in? Although many of the games available on BreakoutEDU are linked to a specific content area, they can be played by any subject. The beauty of these challenge games are the higher-order thinking skills involved and because of this they can be integrated many ways.
Right after ITEC, I purchased a BreakoutEDU kit. The only fall back was that it was going to take two weeks for the kit to arrive. As of today, my kit still has not arrived but I did receive an email stating that due to a high demand for the kits my delivery has been pushed back a few weeks. I then began to create my own kit by duct taking shoe boxes, sparking curiosity (creating clues while integrating curriculum and technology), purchasing different padlocks and reaching out to teachers. I figured once my kit arrived teachers would be able to check out the kit I made to use in their classrooms.
How we planned:
First, I collaborated with a willing teacher, Mrs. Wesselmann, to begin creating clues connected to what they were currently doing in the classroom. One can also search for the right game to use. On the BreakoutEDU site you’ll find the games available now. New games will be added as they are developed. We decided on using “The Wolf’s Den” a game where players are the “little pigs” and locked in the “wolf’s den” from the Three Little Pigs. The students, or should I say “little pigs” are to decipher the clues (both literature and math) to unlock each box and collect the parts of the code and unlock the door. (The door is not really locked.)
Next, we started organizing the materials needed for the game and developing “boxes” out of cardboard shoe boxes and decorated them with fun patterns of duct tape. Once my kit arrives it will come standard with items in it such as locks, a black flashlight, an invisible pen, hint cards, and more. All of these items can be used with each of the different challenge games. In addition to the items in the kit, the game instructed us to print out various digital items that we’d use.
Finally, to make things even more fun, we made some signs for the players to hold up afterwards. Signs were made for a successful escape and unsuccessful escape.
The day came to play BreakoutEDU with the students! Mrs. Wesselmann and I, as the facilitators, introduced the game to the group and explained the objective which was to solve the clues in order to unlock the BreakoutEDU box so they could escape. We started the game timer and let them go. It was fascinating to see how things rolled out. Their energy and dedication to succeed were exciting to witness. What a fantastic way to use logic and higher-order thinking and such a great way to work as a team.
With 24 seconds left on the clock, they didn’t give up. They worked until the very last second and did not escape. Since they worked so hard and brainstormed a plan on what they would do if given a chance to do it over. Mrs. Wesselmann and I surprised them with a second chance. Guess what? They broke out because they improved their skills of collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity.
The feedback we heard from students was so positive. We heard they couldn’t wait to do this again, that it was so much fun doing something different like this, they loved that they had to “think out-of-the-box”, and they were so intrigued after solving one clue that they couldn’t wait to try solving the next. After debriefing with Mrs. Wesselmann, one exciting takeaway was that she wants to
design her own game to use in her future lessons. At some point, our hope is to give students an option to design their own game to put the learning in their own hands. The wonderful thing about this is that when we give students chances like this, what they show us in return can be pretty amazing.
We are already planning our next lesson with a 6th-grade group and Mrs. Zielke is planning one with a group of 2nd graders. Hearing and seeing the students reactions reinforced that playing BreakoutEDU escape games could bring so much to learning. How great it is to be given an opportunity to apply past knowledge and make connections in order to solve new problems. Using problem-solving, critical thinking, logic, creativity, communication, collaboration...these are the skills we strive to have in our lives!
