Engage your students by designing an escape room in class

Games are everywhere. Students have constant access to all kinds of entertainment options in their pockets, and your lecture just can't compete. You confiscate phones. You tell them to keep their eyes on their work. You show videos to try to get their attention. As much as you may want to struggle against the trend, sometimes your best move is to lean into it and outdo the competition.

If your students are going to play games during class, why not take control of the situation and have them play your game? Once you have their attention, you can make sure they have the best experience possible while you trick them into learning with exciting, engaging games.

Turn your classroom into an escape room!

Educational games increase student engagement. That's your biggest hurdle. You know what you want to teach them. You know the material inside and out. The trick is to get them to pay attention. You need a way to focus your students on the task at hand. By turning your lesson into a game, you can push right past everything that's conditioned them to expect learning to be boring. Instead of pushing a multiple-choice assessment under their noses and waiting in silence until they turn them in, you can engage the entire room in an exciting adventure that tests all the same knowledge, but keeps them from sneaking peeks at their phones when they think you're not looking.

You can use any escape kit out of the box exactly as it is, or you can modify the kit for your specific classroom or lesson. Once you pick a narrative, you can customize it to fit your lesson plan and challenge your students to apply what you've taught them to a hands-on experience. It's a great way to simulate a real-world application in a safe environment, and if things get a little competitive, that's just going to ensure your students learn even faster.

Worried this isn't an educationally sound approach? Collaboration. Critical thinking. Problem solving. Creativity. Escape rooms help you instill all of these skills in your students while allowing you to measure their time-on-task and give them constructive feedback. You can use these kits to create lessons that engage your students and tick all the boxes your standards require.