Breakout EDU – It’s Time for Something Different!
Becky Rahm
Luverne Public School Math teacher (8th & 12th grade)
MCTM Region 2 Director
As a teacher in a small district in greater Minnesota I find myself using social media to stay connected and collaborate with other teachers. My go to is generally twitter, but lately I have been getting lots of new ideas from Periscope. The newest thing I’m most excited about, which I heard about on Periscope, is called Breakout EDU. Maybe you have heard about escape rooms where groups are locked in a room and have 60 minutes to solve the clues to “break out” of that room. Well, Breakout EDU brings that same principle to the classroom setting. The tagline on the website Breakout EDU is – A platform for immersive learning games. It’s time for something different! Breakout EDU is a revolutionary new product that brings gaming into the classroom in a meaningful way. It definitely had me interested. Here’s a video with a brief introduction.
Well, after I watched a periscope of a sixth grade classroom participating in a breakout, I was very intrigued and joined the Breakout EDU facebook group. I then realized that this was becoming so popular that there was a 3-4 week backorder on the kits (breakout box, assortment of locks, UV light, etc). I certainly didn’t want to wait that long so I ended up ordering my supplies on Amazon. Did I mention I have Prime? Two days later, everything was at my door.
I spent lots of time looking at the Breakout games that were already developed. None of them, at that time, fit my needs for my math classroom. But it just so happened that we were having Middle School Week the following week and we had a 45 minute block of time where we were looking for an activity for the students to do. Why not test the concept out on 275 students?
So off to work I went developing a Breakout game for middle school homerooms to compete against each other to try and be the first group to solve the clues and get the prize. Decided the first clue was going to be puzzle pieces with a url code on it. The link led to a google form that used text validation. The form would not advance to the next clue (question) until the correct answer for the first clue was entered. The final clue online led them to a word search with a hidden message (made via Discovery School’s Puzzle Maker) and a set of questions where the sum of the answers was a lock combination they would need later.
Those two clues led to the nurse’s office where a box with a 4 digit lock was waiting. Inside the box was the next clue and a small UV blacklight flashlight. This clue was a rebus (something I had never heard of) developed at this site. The clue, when decoded, said “the next clue is located in a great place to take a date – a place with thousands of stories but none get told”. With a UV pen I circled the DATE picture so when the flashlight was on the paper students realized that was important. So off to the media center where a calendar had been placed but nothing was written on it. Using the UV pen I wrote “Congratulations, the candy is locker 1001.” and shaded in the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th. So they had to use their supplies and shine the flashlight to see the clue. When they got to locker 1001 there was a lock on it – the code to the lock was 3467. Inside the locker was the candy prize.
It was fun watching the students, for the most part, work as a team and develop their problem solving and critical thinking skills. I can’t wait to put this to use in my math classroom and have content specific clues that need to be solved. The possibilities are endless. Next up for me, a Pythagorean Theorem based breakout. Anyone interested in collaborating on developing some breakout games feel free to reach out. Two heads (or three or four…) are better than one.
Putting the puzzle pieces together and solving the online clues.
Crossword word (remaining letters are the clue) and using the UV light while solving the clue.