Louie Montoya introducing the game to participants
When we started Breakout EDU, we really didn’t know what type of adventure the next five years would bring us, aside from a few splinters and new found love for gaming. Fast forward to late 2019 when we got an email from the d.school saying that they’ve been experimenting escape rooms for the past few years as an alternative to testing.
Essentially, two separate entities that saw the educational benefit of escape rooms in the classroom! Our team has been a long time fan of the work the folks at the d.school have done so we jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with them on a fun engaging opportunity.
From our initial meeting at the school, through the entire process of developing a unique escape room, we found a sense of validation in knowing that the passion work we had put in for so long was also being worked on from the academic side of things. Grades and worksheets are far too commonly used to test the ability of students, while communication, collaboration and critical thinking should be the benchmark for employable skills in any workplace.
In January of 2020, the d.school hosted Future Fest, a conference showcasing what the future of education would look like and wanted to create a way for them to showcase the work they have been doing with escape rooms as a means for assessment. Together, we designed a custom escape room utilizing Breakout EDU that could be used as an echo-chamber to showcase the idea of collaboration as a means for assessment. Below is a video showing what that experience was like.
After seeing these assessment tools in action, we decided to make this game and resources available for our community to use and share. You can find the assessment resources on the d.school website and find the game, Breaking Barriers, on our platform available to ANYONE with a Breakout EDU account.
At Breakout EDU, we embrace the opportunity to try something different and we hope these resources act a springboard for you to do the same.
The Design Team- Ingvi Omarsson, Louie Montoya, Mark Hammons & Ann Brucker