S31 - Mystery Unleashed: Puzzle Design Strategies for Educational Escape Rooms

Abstract : This interactive workshop will offer a valuable opportunity for educators to explore the principles of active learning, gamification, and puzzle design in the context of educational escape rooms. The focus on puzzle design emphasizes the importance of aligning puzzles with learning objectives, ensuring clarity in instructions, and maintaining engagement through well-designed clues. The workshop will provide participants with practical skills, allowing them to design and implement escape room puzzles tailored to their unique educational contexts, fostering an innovative and interactive approach to teaching and learning.
The purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate how to build escape room puzzles. Learners will engage in hands-on activities to learn how to develop and design escape room puzzles, leaving the workshop with puzzles they can implement at their own institutions.
The workshop will include a general overview of gamification applications for education.  Next, facilitators will provide a framework for designing and developing escape room puzzles.   A practical demonstration of example escape room puzzles will be presented, along with essential and optional supplies.  Learners will then engage in facilitator guided collaborative small group escape room puzzle development, where they will design puzzles specific to their own unique areas of interest.

Please include a short summary of your presentation that highlights why an attendee would want to participate in your session.: In this interactive workshop, educators will explore the principles of active learning, gamification, and puzzle design for educational escape rooms. Participants will learn to create puzzles that maintain student engagement. The workshop includes hands-on activities, collaborative puzzle development, and practical demonstrations, providing educators with the skills to implement escape room puzzles in their own classrooms.