Create an escape room with genially and Microsoft tools

why an Escape Room?

Who doesn't like a mystery? The mysteries make our curiosity grow and this curiosity sparks wonder making us start asking questions. What is the code to open the box? How can I pass this mission to get all of the materials needed for the next mission? All this helps to increase the motivation and creativity of our students, while the problem-solving and critical thinking skills of our students are developed during the process.

In this case, our Escape Room takes place in the Middle Ages. We chose, mainly, STEAM activities in which the students need to design and build different projects to complete their assignments and pass the missions. But actually, every kind of activity can be included in an Escape Room, the activities that we included in this escape room were just activities that covered some specific needs that we had at the moment that we created it, but this lesson structure can be adapted to any type of needs and activities.

how to create an escape room?

We chose Genially to create our Escape Room. With Genially you can create any type of interactive material like presentations, infographics, Gamification lessons, Escape Rooms, etc. The best part of Genially is that it is very user-friendly, you don't need to have a great technology or coding knowledge to create these materials

And if your imaginations or creativity are not your strengths, Genially has premade escape room templates that you can use.

The Escape Room: the castle

Our Escape Room takes place in a castle. The Royal Family has been kidnapped and it is kept in the royal chamber. To be able to save the Royal Family, students will need to find out the secret code to open the door.

There are six missions in the castle. Five missions (in yellow) to obtain the secret code and one mission (in red) to open the royal chamber door.

Microsoft teams and OneNote integration

For this Escape Room, we have decided to use the Microsoft Teams assignments, OneNote and Flipgrid to include more and better content.

For this, we have created five Microsoft Teams assignments (one for each mission).

These assignments include an OneNote page with information, activities, and resources to complete each mission.

How do the missions work?

The first step to complete the mission is to answer the questions that are found in the Escape Room. Each mission has two or three questions that students need to answer after reading all the information that is on the OneNote page of that mission.

If they have answered correctly the questions, they will receive the secret word for each mission.

The students will have to copy and paste the secret word in their OneNote page (this is the way that teachers know that they have passed this small test of two or three questions)

The second step is to do all of the activities in this mission, the instructions of the activities are included in the Teams assignment and in the OneNote page of each mission.

Flipgrid Activities

For example, the mission"The Bridge" focuses on medieval catapults. The students need to choose what type of catapult they want to build based on the information they have read on the OneNote page and record a Flipgrid showing their catapult and talking about its characteristics.

Microsoft Teams Feedback

Once the students have finished all activities for that mission and they write the secret word correctly, they need to turn in the Teams assignment.

If the assignment is completed and the quality is good enough, the teacher will send the number attached to that mission (part of the code needed to open the door) as part of the Teams assignment feedback.

template

Contact us if you want this template.