Escape rooms and learning: evaluation results
Escape rooms are non-virtual games that have gained huge popularity in recent years as a leisure experience. The trend has also made its way into the world of science museums and science centres and the 2018 Ecsite conference hosted a panel on “Escape games: an inspiration for science communication?”, in which a variety of escape games in science learning was presented. A year on and we are wiser and more experienced. We would like to share not only what we do, but also take a deeper look at the learning outcomes of our games. In this session we will present evidence-based evaluation results from several escape rooms and show how our findings compare with the intended learning outcomes “promised” last year.
Suggestion: also attend the Escape room demonstration at 9:00 to get a real escape room experience.
Facilitator
Man and the Living World museum
Session speakers
Head of Exhibition and Education
The Swiss Science Center Technorama has developed two Escape Games centered on natural phenomena in collaboration with AdventureRooms. While solving the riddles the visitors do not only progress in the game but also get a chance to grasp the phenomena. In the session I will share our experiences and discuss the latest results from our user experience study with school classes.
Lecturer in Science Education
University of Southampton
Ran Peleg is an instructional designer who specializes in creating experiential learning environments. He has designed and built six scientific escape rooms in different setting (museums, science festivals, schools) and has given numerous workshops on how to design your own educational escape room. Ran will share insights into the learning outcomes of the educational escape rooms that he co-built with Yael and Malka.
Experiential Learning Spaces Developer & Designer
EdQuest - Twist in Education
Yael is an expert in experiential learning in both formal and informal settings. She designs “new generation” learning spaces for schools, and educational scientific escape rooms for museums, using the exhibition as the theme of the escape room challenges. Yael will talk about how "Man and the Living World museum" was turned into an escape room by night and whether the evaluated learning outcomes meet the design expectations.
Chemistry Teacher and Trainer
Katzir High School and Weizmann Institute of Science
Malka is an expert in bringing difficult chemistry knowledge to the general public in a fun and experiential way. Malka will discuss the evaluation results of the mobile escape unit called "Chemical escape" which is an activity for high school students that brings the extremely popular genre of "escape rooms" into the chemistry classroom.
Sami will discuss evaluation of skills in the City Without Electricity and the Mind Your Brain exhibition which provide escape-game like experiences.
Weizmann Institute of Science
Shelley will discuss the evaluation results of the mobile escape unit called "Chemical escape" which is an activity for high school students that brings the extremely popular genre of "escape rooms" into the chemistry classroom.
