Well-designed games—unlike competitive multiple-choice quiz games—provide immersive experiences for students. Like novels, films, plays, and other media, teachers instructor may use high-quality tools like games to help students access the curriculum while keeping engagement high. The “fun” of gameplay is a core component of why games are so successful with children, according to educators. Games can help children develop important, yet difficult, skills that they would otherwise avoid.
Classroom discussions challenge students to think deeply and articulate their ideas to develop their critical thinking and communication skills. During classroom discussions, students can strengthen their understanding of a topic by listening to their peer’s perspectives, asking questions, and sharing their own reasoning.
Breakout EDU games and 4C cards help facilitate meaningful class discussions.
As we continue to adapt to remote learning, Breakout EDU is here to help bring collaboration and engagement to your virtual classes. By incorporating Breakout EDU digital games and digital game design courses, distant learners can still bond with their classmates and immerse themselves into their lessons.
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.
You may already know that Breakout EDU is perfect for engaging students through creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking in a digital world. While digital team building games are great for distance learning, the true heart of Breakout EDU is the kit-game experience. With our guidelines for playing in light of social distancing, there’s never been a better time to have it all! Breakout EDU games are team-building experiences that can be played safely in-person or collaboratively online.
With so many students now learning in a mostly-virtual environment, one of the most impactful human elements of classroom learning that has suffered is collaboration. Throughout the initial phases of quarantine, the 4Cs (collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking) as a whole took a bit of a hit, as many teachers found themselves working hard to adjust their teaching to get content out to students in a new and changing environment. Now that digital-first learning is the new normal, we have seen more and more examples of teachers who are harnessing the wonderful power of digital tools to bring those critical skills back into play!
I recently got a chance to sit down with Billings, Montana high school teacher-librarian/technology integration specialist (aka a lady who has practically seven full-time jobs and crushes every one of them with her magic and enthusiasm) Shaundel Krumheuer. She had hosted a special event in her library, and with her two library colleagues, ran four games simultaneously with nine groups over the course of three days. If that gives you the mouth-sweats (as she would say), she actually called it “one of the most rejuvenating days” she’s experienced in the library. Here’s what else she had to say about it:
We’ve all been there: the time has ticked down to mere seconds remaining, the last lock has been removed, and all hands are on the hasp; it’s time for the big reveal! The lid begins to open and out comes . . . <<insert SOMETHING>>.
Learn the 5 reasons why students benefit from Breakout EDU game design!
In order to make it easier for students to get signed in and working with the Breakout EDU Platform, we have added Google Classroom as a Sign Up / Log In option. If you use Google Classroom, this is a great way to eliminate the students from having to remember an additional username and password in order to access Breakout EDU.
We are excited to announce 600+ new K-8 games for math, science, ELA and social studies. Included in each of these subject areas, you will find new digital games for all covered standards and capstone games to review each unit.
Our website redesign is more than a fresh coat of paint. We used this occasion to help make navigating Breakout EDU even easier and more straight-forward for teachers. In addition to a new look, we have added some great new features.
Recently we released some great new team building games and had the idea to create a game experience where there are three separate digital games that, in order to succeed, must be played together with three players or in three small teams. Using one another’s images and clues, they will help solve each of their puzzles at the same time.
For Instructional Technology Specialist Tana Ruder, Breakout EDU is the perfect way to help students develop these critical skills—while also reinforcing core content knowledge.
Nearly every teacher has had at least one student who just doesn’t seem engaged. Maybe they’re bored with school, or they’re focused on challenges at home—or maybe they lack the confidence to even try. Elementary school teacher Donnie Piercey was struggling to reach one such child until he tried using Breakout EDU. Suddenly, everything changed.
Getting Students Excited to Learn
In Tina Risinger’s elementary math classroom in Round Rock, Texas, engagement is at an all-time high. Students are excited to learn and practice math skills with Breakout EDU “escape room” games. Each game challenges students to solve a series of problems creatively while working together against the clock. Students are more apt to retain this knowledge and, best of all, students learn important problem-solving skills along the way.
The Breakout EDU Games Team is proud to share a couple of exciting courses to help students started with creating their very own digital games on the Breakout EDU Platform.
These courses, Digital Game Design Junior (designed for the youngest designers) and Student Game Design Course (designed for Upper Elementary students through High School), and the Game Design Mini-Courses (for younger and older students) contain a Teacher’s Guides, short video lessons filled with examples, digital games to help reinforce and teach game design concepts through examples, and great printable game design activities.
We’re always working hard to improve the Breakout EDU experience. These exciting changes will make building and editing Breakout EDU Digital Games even easier for you and your students.
To ring in the new year we added 34 new Breakout EDU games to the platform. There are now more than 900 games ready to use in the classroom and new games are being added regularly. Check out the new releases below.
Walking into Katy Lefler and Michael Thomas’ science class at Ben Steele Middle School is like stepping into an adventure. Kids are huddled over sheets of paper with a few large and small locked boxes in front of them. As the noise of chatter fills the room, a giant clock counts down how much time students have left to crack the code and unlock the clues before them.