Overview
Furthering our goal of bridging the gap between digital and in-person learning, we designed our very own virtual escape room. It is a synthetic biology-themed escape room with challenging riddles and puzzles. Our target audience for this room was high school students currently taking the biotechnology elective. The knowledge required to solve the escape room was above what the high school students have, which is where we introduce the in-person aspect of the escape room. We created a lesson plan in synthetic biology which would educate the students and enable them to solve the escape room. We then approached various high schools in our vicinity, gave them the lesson, and had them play the escape room while we stayed nearby in case any problems arose. This was a massive success; the students that solved the escape room exceptionally well and only the subtlest hints were required for all the students to solve the room. Seeing the excitement of students reassured us in our belief, of how powerful interactive and fun learning can be. Such games not only teach new terms in synthetic biology, but also develop erudition in general, logic, and imagination, and moreover promote the approach of thinking outside of the box.
In addition, we were able to spread a link to our virtual escape room in the iGEM community and received positive feedback about our game from EPFL iGEM 2022, which shared results and their excitement on social media.
click on the picture to try the synthetic biology escape room!
Zoom meeting with teachers from all over Israel
Following our instructions in classrooms, word of mouth spread, and we got over 50 requests from high schools across the country for us to come and teach the children there and have them participate in the escape room. Unfortunately, we realized that we couldn't go to all the schools in person due to the time and distance required to reach all of them. Hence, we scheduled a zoom meeting with the teachers that approached us and explained to them the lesson plan as well as how to do the escape room so that their students would be capable of partaking in it. More than 40 teachers joined the session and were curious not only about the virtual escape room itself, but also about our project and iGEM competition in general. They were totally eager to incorporate our game in their lessons and talk about the topic of synthetic biology at schools, highlighting new innovations in the field and the role of iGEM competition in it. In total, over 600 students from 30 high schools all over the country have taken part in the escape room.
Zoom meeting with biotechnology teachers
Here you can see the places where our escape room has reached
Future plans
We don't want to stop here! Our plans go beyond the scope of iGEM and we hope to make more significant steps in the world of interactive education. We would like to adjust the current game for an even younger audience, making the escape room accessible and understandable for kids with easier riddles and more detailed explanations of biological terms. Seeing the huge success in our country, we would like to spread the game all over the world, making the idea of synthetic biology a more commonly used term. Moreover, we would like to create a real in-person escape room on the same topic, making it even more entertaining. We see in that not only a fun quest that fills life with adventures, vivid impressions and unforgettable emotions , but also as a powerful key to promote educational content.
