Escape the Blahs with BreakoutEdu

BreakoutEdu has been in my pedagogical sights for about a year. What sealed my determination to do a BreakoutEdu with my classes was talking to other teachers at the Games in Education Symposium this summer and doing an escape room with some fellow teachers at the local mall.

The escape room was probably the most fun I had with a group of people in years. That may sound like a sad reflection of my life, but gaming and even traveling isn't the same kind of fun as an escape room. Soon after that eventful week (perhaps even the same week, I don't remember) I started a Donors Choose to get some materials to do a BreakoutEdu (see my previous post on my physics class experience). Low risk, my physics class was a success. Then, after seeing how everything played out, I planned out an activity for my 8th graders. A much greater risk with a potentially much greater reward.

My 8th graders loved the experience. I ended up doing a BreakoutEdu review that included different aspects on our small unit on motion and speed. I had two sets of materials. I decided to break the class into two teams that were further broken into three groups. I was hoping each group could tackle a different lines of clues that would lead to the team opening the crate. That didn't really happen but it wasn't a disaster either. Here is a breakdown of my BreakoutEdu:

Pro:

• Students had fun!
• There was meaningful, good collaboration
• 1/2 of the teams opened their crate
• There was discussion about the science content
• (most) students were respectful of the rules
• Even students who didn't open their crate said they had fun.

Con:

• Teams relied on the "smart" kids
• A few students only watched
• Setting up the clues again between classes

My idea of grouping didn't work. I gave each group a different clue and naively expected them to just work in a group of 3 or 4 to figure it out. Instead, they just did a pow-wow with their team. Seeing the collaborative dynamic unfold I wasn't going to intervene. The idea of two competitive teams worked. They purposely spoke quietly to avoid being overheard by the other team. The erudite silence was only interrupted by occasional "I found it!" or "We got it!" proclamations. At the end of the month I will begin working on another session for my classes. Lots of work but so much fun! If you are on the fence and wondering if it is worth it: it is. Don't think that your kids can't do it or won't enjoy it. They will try their hardest and enjoy it. All you need are the materials and the hard work ahead of time to ensure everything runs as smooth as possible.

Running Around

January is my busiest time of the year. Not only is school energetically back in session after the Holiday break, but coaching wrestling picks up steam as well. Planning for both my eighth grade and high school classes has been a time consuming and stressful process. I did manage to once again get my eighth graders running this year both in real-life and virtually.

Field trips are excellent ways to provide engagement and real learning for students. I consider any lesson that involves leaving the confines of M308 a field trip (going to the computer lab a notable exception). For students, suddenly class doesn't feel like class anymore. For my speed lesson I usually take students outside to work in groups to measure distance and time, and then calculate speed. Since it was about 10 F out the day I wanted to do this activity I had to go with Plan B.

Plan B involved taking the class into the "basement" which includes the hallways outside the locker rooms and wrestling room. Each group brought a meter stick, clipboard with data sheet, stopwatch, and dry-erase marker with rag. I tested the dry-erase marker on the floor of my room and it erased off well enough.

I tried to not give too many instructions. I wanted to see how much they could figure out without being encumbered by wordy directions. The suggestion was to measure about 5 to 10 m and then time how long it took for someone to run that distance. They had to get an average of 4 speeds that could have been 4 different group members or all of the same group member 4 times. Whatever combination worked.

The only thing that didn't work out well was that some students decided to write distances in HUGE numbers on the floor and/or write START and STOP in big letters. These did not erase off the floor even with much persistence. Live and learn. Being in the basement otherwise went well.  Being in the basement was less distracting than being outside where other classes might see us. Being next to the rowdy gym classes; we could be as rowdy as we wanted as well.

The next two days I brought my classes to a computer lab that has MinecraftEdu installed. Our goal is the compare our real speeds to that of our virtual selves in Minecraft. I have a world that I adapted for figuring out the speed of Steve (your character in Minecraft), a minecart, and a falling chicken and cow. We talk a bit about how programmers need to know science to program in the motion of objects in the game.

I generally have mixed results with this lesson which I have tweaked several times. Minecrafting students love this lesson and ask at the beginning of the year when we will be playing Minecraft in class. Some students don't read the signs in game and require help to move on. Overall, I do have fewer off-task students and students are excited to work in Minecraft.




I pondered having students make their own tracks to measure speed within assigned group plots in game. That way we could match the task we did in real-life better and afford more student creativity. I will seriously consider that option for next year.