Escape Rooms: Unlocking Learning for Every Child

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Originally published in TEACH Magazine, May/June 2018 Issue

By Martha Beach

“I did not do well in school,” proclaims Paul Harvey. “I was that kid who couldn’t sit down and shut up for five minutes.” We have all met that student at one time or another—you may even have one in your class right now. “I’m not stupid, I just didn’t thrive in a classroom,” he says. And he’s not an anomaly. Some people simply don’t learn well by sitting and listening in a traditional classroom setting. That’s why Harvey co-founded Mobile Escape, to bring some fun and games to schools in Calgary.

Escape rooms are group adventure games. Participants use elements in a locked room to solve riddles and puzzles (be they words, pictures, math, mechanical, or other) through strategy, discovery, critical thinking, teamwork, and clues with the goal of unlocking the room within a set amount of time. These rooms have been in Canada for about five years after first gaining traction in Europe and Asia.

Though first used as team-building programs for adults, several companies across Canada have now taken advantage of these flexible and fun puzzle adventures to create escape room programs for school kids. “All of a sudden [students] are encouraged to be on their feet, be curious,” Harvey says.

Escape rooms have a range of benefits: inquiry-based learning, hands-on participation, maker-based gamification creation process, as well as catering to many different learning styles at once. This is particularly useful for students who struggle with a traditional classroom setting.

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Martha Beach lives and works in Toronto as a freelance fact-checker, editor, and writer for a wide variety of publications. When she’s not working, you’ll find Martha on her yoga mat or hanging out with her daughter and husband.

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Martha Beach
Martha Beach
Martha Beach lives and works in Toronto as a freelance fact-checker, editor, and writer for a wide variety of publications. When she’s not working, you’ll find Martha on her yoga mat or hanging out with her daughter and husband.

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