Escape Rooms as an Educational Tool for Engineering Education: Implementation of an Educational Chemical Engineering Escape Room
Year: 2024
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Escape rooms have emerged as innovative educational tools in various disciplines, including engineering education, due to their potential to engage students in active learning and problemsolving.This paper explores the application of escape rooms as an educational tool in engineering education, with a specific focus on a Chemical Engineering Escape Room developed for implementation at the 2024 ASEE Midwest Section Conference.The Chemical Engineering Escape Room was conceptualized to provide participants with an immersive learning experience while reinforcing key concepts in chemical engineering.A significant aspect of its development involved the use of MATLAB for programming virtual riddles and clues, enhancing practicality, portability and reducing implementation costs.To guide participants through the game and ensure educational outcomes were met, learning tools in the form of educational brochures were created.These brochures outlined the flow of the escape room and provided succinct explanations of the core educational concepts embedded within the puzzles.Post-activity questionaries were designed to evaluate the effectiveness of chemical engineering escape rooms as an alternative pedagogic method.This data will be collected at the 2024 ASEE Midwest Section Conference, and the results would be discussed in a separate manuscript.Hence, this study serves as the foundation of our work in the future, highlighting the versatility of escape rooms across various engineering concepts.Therefore, the goal is to establish Chemical Engineering Escape Rooms as an example of a collaborative and creative approach to engineering education, leveraging gamification and immersive storytelling to enhance learning experiences outside traditional classroom settings.The integration of virtual programming and educational brochures underscores the adaptability and scalability of escape rooms as tools for promoting active learning and knowledge retention among engineering students.
Source: ASEE Midwest Section Conference
Authors: Alejandra T. Velasco, Abhishek Juneja
Institution: University of Kansas
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4402898673