HOW TO CREATE A MATHEMATICAL ESCAPE ROOM

Hello everybody!

In this post I am going to explain you the steps and factors you have to take into account if you want to create your own Mathematical Escape Room, in order to implement it in a primary classroom.

First of all, you have to know a Escape Room is a game in which a team of players cooperatively discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to progress and accomplish a specific goal in a limited amount of time. The goal is to escape from the site of the game.

In this case, the challenges, questions or clues to solve, will be mathematics related and adapted to the level of the kids.

Factor to take into consideration:

• Time: The first thing is to choose the duration: usually 45 minutes is the perfect amount. Also, it will be convenient to get a clock in the classroom, so the students can check the time whenever they want. We can also use a digital clock and project it on the digital board.
  
• Create a perfect environment: The best idea would be to play tension music, to create atmosphere, which can be played with a mobile phone or computer. Furthermore, it is important to decorate the classroom to get the perfect environment.
• Look for the perfect classroom: find the one that has many elements or places where you can hide the clues of the game. Add also some elements if you think is necessary as another little closet, a coat rack, a target and some weird objects, that usually are not there, to make it more interesting.
  
• Stablish and communicate the rules loud and clear: Before starting the game, establish the basis of the escape room in Mathematics. 

This is an example, taken from EDUCACIÓN 3.0, of how many little steps or challenges can a Escape Room has. In the case we wanted to do a Escape Room related with the units of measures in Primary Education, I propose to make the students make conversions, use measuring intruments and some of the materials shown in the blog, in order to get a code and pass to the next step. https://www.educaciontrespuntocero.com/noticias/crear-escape-room-en-matematicas/

Although it is an activity that can only be played by groups of four or five students, it encourages teamwork and coordination among them. It also helps them to develop their imagination, increases their motivation and they learn mathematics while having fun. So I think this is a perfect idea to learn maths while playing.