Gaming to Learn

Escape rooms are live action games where “players” are locked into a room and must work together to discover clues, solve puzzles, and ultimately find the way to escape. There are currently over 2,300 escape rooms in the US. Given the popularity of escape rooms, it is no wonder they have been repurposed for the classroom to aid in student learning. Though research into utilizing escape rooms as an educational tool is still in its nascent stages, studies have provided evidence that these academic escape room activities are useful in enhancing student collaboration and communication skills and in building specific content knowledge. This chapter will explore the history of escape rooms, review research on the benefits of using escape rooms in classrooms as an instructional tool, and finally, discuss the results of the pilot test of a compost themed escape room game designed for use in middle school science classrooms.

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