About the science escape room
Exploring Science, Computing, and Project Engagement (ESCAPE) is a curriculum and professional development project designed to integrate meaningful technology-facilitated problem-solving and design into scientific inquiry for underrepresented populations of students in middle and high school physical science classes. Through ESCAPE, teachers are trained to develop project-based learning (PBL) escape room puzzles that teach both computing skills and physics content skills. Escape rooms are an increasingly popular form of play, where small teams work together to solve a series of puzzles that will enable them to unlock a room before the allotted time expires in order to win (ExitGames, 2017). Because these activities are cooperative in nature, impose a time limit, and require problem solving, they bridge the traditionally distinct categories of “game” and “puzzle.” While games are often touted as motivating contexts for learning (e.g., Gee, 2008; Steinkuehler, Squire, & Barab, 2012), they are also cultural artifacts that reflect a society’s underlying values and conceptual frameworks (Chick, 1998). In this context, we argue that escape rooms, as cooperative problem-solving games that students can both play and create for peers, are optimally positioned to offer both a motivating context for the application of computing and curricular content and an important opportunity for the linking of school and home cultures through creative STEM engagement.
The ESCAPE project will revise and expand previously developed puzzle projects such as the “circuit forest” and “magnetism vocabulary” (Tofel-Grehl et al., under review) and develop associated lesson plans to include more focused computer science content instruction. Two additional puzzle projects will also be developed that integrate the previously taught computing skills with more programing skills as a means for designing novel engineering problems. All projects invoke computational elements such as sequencing, conditional and Boolean logic, and data storage and use, which manifest in instruction of several foundational programming concepts: sensing, conditionals, operators, embedded loops, and functions. They also address Utah SEEd standards (12.4.2) pertaining to the comprehension and development of electrical circuits, including principles related to conductivity, resistance, and current.
Over the five-year span of the ESCAPE project, we will engage in three cycles of design, implementation, and analysis to develop and refine the puzzle unit described above. The intent of this process is to both shape the curricular materials to maximize their utility and value for participating teachers and their students and gain theoretical insights that can inform future endeavors for integrating technology into subject specific classrooms in meaningful ways supportive of both teacher and student STEM learning (Barab & Squire, 2004; Cobb et al., 2004). To accomplish this goal, we will bring together (1) thick descriptive data from classroom observations and teacher interviews that capture emergent themes from teachers’ classroom delivery of the puzzle unit and their perspectives on their implementation, (2) quantitative trend data regarding the quality and quantity of use of reformed science teaching strategies as measured by the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP; MacIsaac & Falconer, 2002), and (3) survey data from students to gauge changes in STEM identity, self-concept, and career interest. To evaluate the magnitude of potential shifts, we will examine the variation of gains within and across classes, assessing interactions with student gender and ethnicity proportions as applicable. While these scores will be highly situated within individual teachers and student cohorts in each year (i.e., nested), emergent patterns assessed through multilevel longitudinal modeling will be interpreted jointly with qualitative data gathered through observation and teacher interviews to construct actionable interpretations that can inform strategic modifications to the ESCAPE unit and lessons.
The ESCAPE project will revise and expand previously developed puzzle projects such as the “circuit forest” and “magnetism vocabulary” (Tofel-Grehl et al., under review) and develop associated lesson plans to include more focused computer science content instruction. Two additional puzzle projects will also be developed that integrate the previously taught computing skills with more programing skills as a means for designing novel engineering problems. All projects invoke computational elements such as sequencing, conditional and Boolean logic, and data storage and use, which manifest in instruction of several foundational programming concepts: sensing, conditionals, operators, embedded loops, and functions. They also address Utah SEEd standards (12.4.2) pertaining to the comprehension and development of electrical circuits, including principles related to conductivity, resistance, and current.
Over the five-year span of the ESCAPE project, we will engage in three cycles of design, implementation, and analysis to develop and refine the puzzle unit described above. The intent of this process is to both shape the curricular materials to maximize their utility and value for participating teachers and their students and gain theoretical insights that can inform future endeavors for integrating technology into subject specific classrooms in meaningful ways supportive of both teacher and student STEM learning (Barab & Squire, 2004; Cobb et al., 2004). To accomplish this goal, we will bring together (1) thick descriptive data from classroom observations and teacher interviews that capture emergent themes from teachers’ classroom delivery of the puzzle unit and their perspectives on their implementation, (2) quantitative trend data regarding the quality and quantity of use of reformed science teaching strategies as measured by the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP; MacIsaac & Falconer, 2002), and (3) survey data from students to gauge changes in STEM identity, self-concept, and career interest. To evaluate the magnitude of potential shifts, we will examine the variation of gains within and across classes, assessing interactions with student gender and ethnicity proportions as applicable. While these scores will be highly situated within individual teachers and student cohorts in each year (i.e., nested), emergent patterns assessed through multilevel longitudinal modeling will be interpreted jointly with qualitative data gathered through observation and teacher interviews to construct actionable interpretations that can inform strategic modifications to the ESCAPE unit and lessons.