A chemical escape room is a chemistry-inspired escape room that has been adapted for the education system. Six escape rooms have been developed by the chemistry group and are currently operating in many schools throughout Israel. Some of these escape rooms are pre-made to be operated by teachers in their school's own lab and are designed around specific topics in chemistry (e.g., acids and bases or basic chemistry); others consist of DIY escape rooms that teachers can build themselves (the periodic table, energy, and sustainability sources); one is a virtual room (“The Masked Scientist”), and one is a hybrid that deals with nano-chemistry. The puzzles in all the rooms are based on the subjects that are included in the curriculum and aim at introducing additional content to further enrich students. The rooms consist of experiments and “dry” puzzles. Managing the escape rooms and solving the puzzles require perseverance, cooperation, and out-of-the-box thinking. The escape room team also studies and analyzes the development of current skill levels of individual students and classes that participate in the chemistry escape room activities.
Exploring new horizons in chemistry education through innovative approaches
