Demo Day: Escape the Room!
March is one of the longest months of the school year. The month brings about unpredictable weather, daylight savings time, and hopefully, the end of “cabin fever.” How do we keep our students engaged? There are various ideas for crunch time, but one of our favorites is Escape the Room. All the rage in towns across the US, escape the room challenges students to solve problems, collaborate in a team setting and also apply learned concepts. So how do teachers take the fun team building activity and bring it into the classroom?
Incorporating escape the room into your classroom can be as quick and easy as you want it to be. Create scenarios, challenges and puzzles to create a highly engaging environment! For those more competitive classrooms, offer a reward to those teams that escaped in time. Check out our demonstration lesson and let us know what you did!
Objective/Goal
• Students will determine the solutions to linear equations and systems of linear equations
• Students will create linear equations and systems of linear equations when given real world problems
Set the foundation for success with specific and achievable objectives!
Materials
• Laptops (enough for each station)
• Logic puzzles
• Calculators
• Guided Worksheets
Student Activities
• Break students into groups
• Each group will begin at their own individual station. They must solve the problem/clue in their station and get teacher approval before moving to the next station (you will need more stations than groups)
• Stations may include: logic puzzles, word problems, a series of linear equations that students must solve in a given amount of time, a series of linear systems that correlates with a code that must be cracked and a task of creating their own linear equations (with solutions)
• The teacher will ciruclate to help confirm that each group completed the task
• Provide assistance and prompting as needed and according to individual needs
A custom element in Planbook Plus was created that listed off the group member names. When the lesson plan was printed out, the names were already listed and separated. Remember, a well-planned lesson is an engaging lesson!
Assessment
• Formative: Teacher will circulate throughout the room, assessing the progress of each group as they complete the tasks successfully.
• Summative: Products at each station will be collected and evaluated for each individual student.
Resilience
Consider adding an element for assessing resilience. As we know, a student’s ability to persevere through difficult tasks will benefit them in their future. Take time to note which students rise to the occasion and which struggle. Then, take the time to help boost the confidence of those who struggle.
Take this demo lesson and make it your own! Remember, Planbook Plus has state standards available, so tying the standards to your objectives should be simple! Share your successful escape the room activities with us!
