Breaking Out of the Norm

It has been a long time since I tried to blog. I think too much about what I am trying to say. So here is a different approach inspired by a few amazing Twitter friends. First topic, a digital breakout.

Tom (my amazing partner in crime and coleader of the our Science Heroes Classroom game) and I started our new unit with Amplify science about Earth features. However, I had to take my son to the dentist. I thought I would use this as an opportunity to try my hand at a gamified approach to being out; a digital breakout.

If you don’t know, a digital breakout is a set up where students work through different puzzles or challenges to get keywords or numbers which open locks to finish a challenge. Digitally, this can be created on Google site using forms. It takes some work but the results (if done right) are pretty cool.

I started by watching an amazing video by Meagan Kelly (found here) and just began building. After putting together the Science Heroes website and playing around a lot with Google Forms as exit tickets it wasn’t all that hard to put together and I learned a thing or two about answer verification, which is awesome. Tom suggested four locks for our first go. Our initial key was found in an article about Sue, the big T-Rex fossils in Chicago. Correct answers provided the key. For key two, I pushed them to a puzzle online which needed to be completed to help answer questions. Key three found students having to rearrange a web address in google slides to find a site to help them get the answers. The final hid a link in a picture, that gave them the information that they needed.

Tom, Guy (our awesome media specialist) and my wife all tested it for me. This was a huge blessing as we were able to catch a few problems and make it hum. I highly recommend you get people to try it first.

You can find the breakout here.

Look at this crew working hard.

I set it up for my sub, and only a few kids were able to finish during class. My intention was to give them some more time when I was there the next day, but to my surprise a few of them went on to finish that night at home. When I got back I was greeted by many kids saying that they wanted more time and asking when we would do this again. The locks all seemed to hit just the right notes and none were too easy or difficult. The activity provides the students with a solid foundation for the unit, giving them some introduction in to layers of rock, fossils, and the area of the country we are focusing on.

So intense.

On the flip side, I never want to miss being there when I unleash it on them again. I missed their initial triumphs, and while I got to experience many of them beaming with pride when they finished the next day, it would have been nice to be there for it all. Also, while I think this was a great introduction to this sort of activity, they can handle a lot of challenge and come through. That perseverance is so key to teaching the grit. Going forward I want to work in a video and maybe add some more cross curriculum elements, but it was definitely worth the time to learn and build going forward.