Themes, puzzles and escape room signs
There are three key signs for escape room success as the escape room creator. You need a great story, you need puzzles and clues, not worksheets and you need great escape room signs. What do students enjoy even more than escaping? Holding up those funny escape room signs!
1. Your escape room has a great theme and backstory
Every great escape room has a story. Whether you’re locked in prison, locked in a mad scientist’s lab, captured by aliens, the building is about to explode or you simply have to complete a project within the hour to save your company, every escape room has a story. To elaborate on your story, don’t be afraid to provide a backstory prior to the challenge. A fake email message, video, note or even an opening monologue are the best way to convey your story. In addition, be sure to include props and decorations to seal the deal for your learners to buy in.
2. Your escape includes puzzles and clues, not worksheets
Too often teachers hand students a stack of worksheets and call it an escape room. Aside from this being less engaging for the students, you are missing out on all the awesome lessons students learn from escape rooms, in addition to the content being reviewed. The puzzles and clues should be meaningful and make students think critically. The more clever the puzzle, the harder students will have to think to break free from the escape room.
Although the subject area should be the heart of the content, learning to organize information, think critically and work together are also very important. To make your escape room challenges feel more like an actual escape room and less like a worksheet, check out my five clever ways to upgrade any math escape activity. For more fresh ideas and inspiration, check out Kesler Science’s “Escape room puzzle ideas for the science classroom” that can be applied to any escape room challenge.
3. Use escape room end of game signs
When your students break free, escape room signs are a must! The students just worked on a task for up to an hour! That merits a huge reward, especially if they escaped! Part of the reward is getting to take pictures with fun escape room winner signs. My students love bragging to their friends that they were able to escape and the best source of proof is a beautiful photo of them holding up escape room end of game signs. After snapping a few photos, I usually post them to Google Classroom for the students to view and share. Please check with your school’s policy when it comes to posting any images or information about students on the internet before taking any photos.
Searching for more on classroom escape challenges?
If you need more information on creating an escape challenge or want to know what lessons your students can learn from an escape room, check out my other posts.
