The Great Escape at Port Douglas State School
Innovative learning at Port Douglas state school
At 11.15 each day in the back of the library at Port Douglas State School you will unsuspectingly walk past a shut door with a group of students ‘locked’ inside the room racing to break free from their lunchtime library lockup, where the only way out is to work as a team solving a series of puzzles and riddles.
Is this cruel and unusual punishment?
Far from it, it is the school’s most recent innovative learning method, a curriculum-based escape room. A creative break from traditional learning models that are discovery-based and engaging, playful enough that the students are banging down the door to get in.
The idea was born from passionate first-year teacher Kelda Wray, known by her students as Miss Kelda, who was looking for new ways to make learning more meaningful and appealing, something that didn’t feel like schoolwork.
“The escape room is something different and exciting for the kids. It makes their learning connected to "real-life" activities and keeps them engaged.
“They are learning so many new skills and using their learned knowledge in the classroom in different ways,” said Miss Kelda.
Creativity belongs everywhere, especially in learning
Grounded in educational theory escape rooms have the potential to be a game-changer in the school environment as a low-cost high-impact collaborative learning resource for all ages.
They also offer a refreshing shake-up in a world full of screens taking children away from devices invoking them to play in a story-like setting involving all senses benefiting the development of cognitive, social, and performance skills.
It’s not hard to solve the puzzle as to why escape rooms have become wildly popular worldwide, they energise us to think outside the four walls. Using both critical and abstract reasoning paired with imagination and people’s natural curiosity the challenges of escape rooms expand our minds in new ways to tackle tasks, discover hidden clues, and solve mysterious riddles.
“The main focus is to build essential social skills. The idea that students get to work with "anybody" is so fantastic to see, as they are building relationships and growing in confidence by working with other people that they wouldn't normally choose to work with.
“I think the best thing is that they see it as 'play" because it's so fun, but it is certainly a learning aid. Along with the skills mentioned earlier, I have links to mathematics, geography, literacy, and science which are all important learning areas,” said Miss Kelda.
Get me out of here!
Each morning students eagerly seek out five coveted keys hidden throughout the school’s halls and grounds to be selected to take on the challenges to give the escape room a red-hot go.
Once inside the hidden space in the back of the library, the keen five move through the room like keystone detectives in fast forward attempting to solve each tricky riddle putting together clue after clue to unlock the door.
“TICK TOCK, TICK TOCK,” Miss Kelda encourages, she is a hard taskmaster letting the students sweat it out a bit before gently nudging a hint when there seems to be a block.
After bending their minds to successfully open a locked chest through around the globe clues the excitement mounts, “I love escape room,” one student exclaims.
Basically, they work in teams and are timed to see how long it takes them to "escape" explains Miss Kelda.
“Originally, I made this room just for my classroom but the anticipation and excitement from all the students in the school was amazing, so I decided to make it a "whole school" activity. Because of this interest I decided to hide five keys every day. If you find a key, you are "in" the escape room the next day. There is so much excitement at second lunch as the students rush around looking for the hidden keys!
“Once you are one of the lucky five, you enter the room (supervised by me) and work together to escape.
“I time them to see which team is the fastest. Although, I haven't told any teams what their time is yet, so no one knows where they are on the "leader board" this is keeping the excitement alive for everyone, even if they've had a turn already,” said Miss Kelda.
Next level for Miss Kelda’s escape room?
“Well, the way it is going it will be utilised for a while, I'm thinking of changing the theme next term seen as all the students want to try again.
“I am doing 'upper school' and 'lower school' challenges. This way I can adjust my learning tasks and challenges to the curriculum ability of the students.
“The teachers also want to give it a go so I think I'll make it a bit harder for them and see if they can escape or not! Hope so! Otherwise, we'll have no teachers for the classes,” Miss Kelda quips.
What do the students really think?
“It was fun, it took a long time, it was great escaping, I would do it again. Each challenge was different.” - Keeley Grade 4
“It was fun, lots of different questions, it was new that I haven’t done it before, I would like to do it again, it was awesome.” - Amelia Grade 4
“I really enjoyed it, it was interesting, I liked the letter one. I’d definitely do it again.” - Sofiia Grade 5
“It was very good, it was fun, engaging. It used the knowledge that I have learned. It involved fidgety things like padlocks. I’d definitely do it again.” - Blair Grade 6
Thank you!
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