A couple of weeks ago, my students were asking when we would have another BreakoutEDU Digital in our math classroom since the last one we had done was in early February. Before you begin thinking that I don’t like BreakoutEDU Digitals, I have to tell you – I absolutely LOVE using BreakoutEDU Digital in our math classroom. The students enjoy it, their engagement is at an all-time high, and they are able to review and practice material from class. The only drawback is that it takes me a few hours to make and the last couple of months have been very busy. So, last weekend I told myself I would sit down and build a new BreakoutEDU on reviewing area of shapes.
Enter…The “Escape the Dungeon!” BreakoutEDU Digital!
The Storyline:
When I create a BreakoutEDU Digital, I try to create a story that my students will find entertaining. Usually, that means that I will put their names into the story to create a greater interest in seeing what happens to the characters.
In this story, King Ethan’s kingdom has been taken over by the evil Queen Delilah – can you save break King Ethan out of the dungeon and save the kingdom?
As you can see, this creates some great conversation between the students. They love hearing that they and their friends are a part of the story. Next year, I will probably go back and adjust the names to include the name of my new students to continue increasing student engagement.
Math Concepts Covered:
In this BreakoutEDU, students will:
- Calculate the area of rectangles, triangles, circles, and trapezoids.
- Calculate the area of combined and shaded figures.
- Use their knowledge of area to solve word problems based on real-life scenarios.
Digital Tools Used:
In this BreakoutEDU, I have used the following digital tools and resources:
- Google Forms (of course!)
- Google Drawings
- Hidden/Embedded Links
- Caesar Cipher
- Unicode
Most of the BreakoutEDU requires students to answer problems on Google Forms but they do have to find the forms and/or break into the forms to solve the problems.
To access the “Escape the Dungeon!” Breakout EDU Digital, click HERE.
Final Thoughts:
It doesn’t matter how many times we do a BreakoutEDU in our math classroom – the students still love it! I love the engagement and the excitement as they solve the problems.
In addition to this, I saw a huge improvement in their knowledge of the material. I had given my students a short quiz the week before and many students struggled. After completing some in-class tutorials and our BreakoutEDU, nearly every student received a 70% or higher on the retake quiz that I offered. It was a huge increase from the previous week.
One more thing…If you ever create a BreakoutEDU Digital, please make sure that you find someone to test it out for you. I have to give major props to Aubrey Yeh (@Ms_A_Yeh) for testing out my BreakoutEDU. If not for her, it would have been a hot mess the next day in class. There were quite a few errors and permission issues that would have caused some problems for my students. So – make sure you find those awesome people to test out your BreakoutEDU Digital if you create one for your students.
Enjoy and have a great day!
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I love the way you broke it down with headers here (storyline, content, digital tools, etc). That’s really helpful for others thinking about using it! I may have to steal that for my future games :-)!
Thanks Aubrey! My students want to do another one when I am out next week for GCI – so I need to start brainstorming!
This SOCAL road trip looks great; thanks.
Here’s the problem – after location 5 I put in the url and it says error 500. Can you help me as I plan to use tomorrow?
Great question – so I saw a similar issue when my students completed it. This will sound crazy but just have them copy and paste it again and/or refresh the URL. My students had a similar issue but it was fixed when they tried it again.
Let me know if this works!
Please email me and don’t post this comment…I’m stuck on the five letter code at the end. Where are the hints for that? What am I missing? I tried to do the activity so I can give it to my students on Tuesday…Loved the rest of it!
Can also email me personally at [email protected]
Hey! I just worked through your breakout and love every bit of it! It is so creative and has great problems for students to solve. I would like to use it with my students either tomorrow or right after Christmas but I am having trouble with the last letter lock. I wonder if the link provided still sends to a legitimate website? Could you maybe check it and get back to me. Email would be fine [email protected], Thanks!
Hello!
I just double checked and the link does work. Just make sure that you are copying the entire link exactly how it is written. 🙂
Let me know if this helps!
Thanks for getting back to me, Meagan! Still not sure what I am missing with it. Maybe I missed a clue somewhere else. Could you give a hint and tell me the code? I still would like to use this with my students and want them to be able to work through all of it but don’t want them stuck on the last lock.
Hi Kelly,
Send me an email at [email protected] and I can give you more clues!
Hi Megan,
Thank you very much for your explanation and examples provided. I’m really impressed with the list of digital tools that can be extremely helpful for both students and teachers.
Being a blogger and a linguistic enthusiast, I’d like to recommend one more tool that comes in handy for me while writing texts and for my students to check their works for plagiarism. This plagiarism checker substitutes other expensive analogues and can boast of its accuracy and speed. Hope it can be helpful for all who deal with the content, math as well.
My class did this today.. It was excellent!!! They all really enjoyed it!! In a 40 minute period only 1 group finished it. They couldn’t figure out the 5 word code at the end. Any hints??? Thank you SO MUCH FOR SHARING!!!
I’m so glad they enjoyed it! Please let me know if you have any ideas for future breakouts. I would be happy to build one!
Okay, hint: There is a hidden link in the last code. If students type in the box, they will find the link. 🙂
Hi Meagan,
I’m a grade 4 teacher and new mom without much time on my hands. I came across your escape room and was wondering if I could use the story and everything but just change the questions. My students just learned 3-digit by 1-digit multiplication. I would credit you and most definitely wouldn’t use it to sell or share it with anyone else.
Thanks,
Kate
Hi Kate,
Yes! Of course! I’m a new mom, too, so I totally get it. 🙂
Megan
WOW! I love the digital escape that you created. I need a hint on the letter lock #5. We have found the link but still don’t understand
Also, can I get permission to change and use the material. I teach pre-algebra and regular math for 7th grade. I think my regular math students would struggle with a few of the problems. I haven’t created a digital escape by myself yet. However, my tech coach, Tammy Reindl, will help me create it. So I am asking for permission for both of us to use the material. We will credit you in the changed Escape.
Thank you,
Heidi Durbin
Hello,
I am going to have my students work on this tomorrow (PS I LOVE YOUR STUFF) however I am struggling with the 5 digit lock. I opened the link but I’m not seeing anything that would be helpful. Any suggestions?
For the letter code, you need to start by typing randomly into the answer box. Then a link will show up below it. 🙂
Hi Meagan,
Love the idea of this escape room…want to use this for volume…and ideas on how to do this?
The link for the last code is not working. Thanks,
Hi Chris!
It should work – just make sure that you follow the link that appears under the box when you start typing in it.
Hi Meagan,
I have tried to figure out the last code for the past two days with some students. It takes me to a really weird website when I copy the link. Can we get a hint?
Hi Breanna,
That is correct! There is a website hidden in the letter code that you need to use. You will line up the numbers with the letters for the letter code.
This looks great – have you heard of the EquatIO math extension from Texthelp. You could add this as a further digital tool to allow students to express their math in various ways.
I love this and really want to use it with my students! Thank you, but help me out here–on Lock 4, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to enter the name–I have tried every spelling of Euclid I can find, and I keep getting the ALL CAPS message..am I supposed to use that wheel, am I supposed to use where Euclid is from, is there a number also and I am just not seeing it because of the name error message?? Thanks!