This week, my students scrubbed in and were tasked with the job of saving my life! Yes, you heard that right. My life was in the hands of my students, or should I say doctors. As we are concluding our unit on the human body systems I wanted to do something fun and engaging to assess their knowledge and provide them with an engaging way to apply what they have learned. I decided to create a digital escape room that requires them to use this knowledge to help save my life and escape the operating room.
Ever since I first experienced a breakout or escape room myself, I have been obsessed. The thrill of the unknown, the rush to solve the puzzle in time, and the unique experience that makes you feel like you’ve been transported to another world is really something special escape rooms provide. I wanted to bring this excitement into my classroom and let my students experience these feelings and transform our classroom. I decided to reach out to our local businesses and get hospital gowns and surgical masks donated and was so fortunate that they provided these to our classroom. The only items I purchased for this lesson were blue tablecloths and manila file folders to contain the clues for the escape room.
A blue table cloth covered my classroom door, with a sign stating they were entering the operating escape room. As they entered, they heard operating room sounds playing in the background including an EKG monitor, a heartbeat, and a ventilator–all playing simultaneously. I was dressed in scrubs, a surgical mask covering my face, a doctor’s coat, clad with a stethoscope and playing the role of Dr. Do-little (Mr. Cook’s doctor). I let my students know Mr. Cook was out sick that day and they would have thirty minutes to escape the operating room and save Mr. Cook’s life. I had them scrub in and place their surgical gowns and masks on before we began. I then played a video message from Mr. Cook who provided them with a clue to get started.
With thirty minutes on the clock, students used their private medical files to help answer questions in their digital escape file (A Google Form). Students had to work in groups to answer the questions in the digital escape file, but were challenged to understand how to find the answers using their clues. Each lock required them to dig deeper into the file and encode their answers to break open each lock. As they answered correctly, the progressed to the next lock and were one step closer to saving Mr. Cook’s life. When students were stumped, they were able to cash in a Hint and ask for help from Dr. Do-little. Students rushed frantically and luckily, opened the three locks in the nick of time and saved Mr. Cook’s life, escaping the operating room in time.
I am so glad that my students were able to have this experience and know that this will be a lesson I use in my classroom for years to come. I have created everything you will need to bring this digital escape room into your very own classroom and have uploaded it to my Teachers Pay Teachers store. If you want a lesson your students will never forget, head to my store and purchase it today:
