Teaching science, sustainability and technology through gamification: The approach of escape rooms.

Gamification is a pedagogical strategy that introduces principles of gaming in learning environments by promoting participation and enhancing motivation. The literature indicates that whenever students are involved in playful educational experiences, motivation is significantly increased compared to the typical educational activities while emotional intelligence and well-being are also cultivated. Studying in a distraction-free atmosphere helps students foster a positive attitude towards learning as they can study and participate at their own speed, free of peers and teachers pressure.

Escape rooms as a didactic tool in teaching and learning is still in its nascent stages, but recent researches have proven that it does not just offer students’ exposure to technology but a higher level of critical thinking, decision making under time constraints, communication, creative innovation, confidence and collaboration amongst peers.

My colleagues and I are involved in a project that gives the students of our school the opportunity to participate in creating and promoting escape rooms as a learning activity in order to present a different teaching approach. The context varies among science, environmental problems, sustainability, geography, space, math and technology. We combine the team based learning method and the project based method in order to study each topic, collect information, write a story, create relative puzzles and include them in each escape room. When digital escape rooms are ready, teams exchange their links trying to solve them and accomplish their missions. In this way, students are involved in different topics and obtain knowledge by exploring, creating and collaborating. All of the above is going to be presented to our poster.