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METHODS article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Digital Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1405324

Interactive Chemistry Escape Game as a Tool of Distance Education: A Case Study of a Pilot Test from the First Escape Room

Provisionally accepted
  • University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czechia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The aim of this paper is to present an escape game which is the first part of a year-round, virtual, educational role-playing game built on the e-learning platform Moodle. The game is primarily focused on chemistry, although it has a great interdisciplinary overlap into physics, biology, and mathematics. The content of the game covers topics found in the chemistry curriculum at middle school and consists of a total of ten escape rooms. Each rooma separate escape gameis a selfcontained unit, linked to the others by a storyline, and can be used as an educational tool even during long-term student absences, as was the case during the Covid-19 pandemic. The first room (escape game), as well as the entire year-long game, sets the mood and introduces elements of tension that reflect the story running throughout the game. The central concept is that of carbon being one of the most important elements on planet Earth. In this article, the first escape room (called Mixtures) is explained, as well as the whole overall structure of the game. The results from the pilot test conducted on 125 students are also presented. Students solved various types of tasks, and the testing showed that they performed best when describing chemical apparatus. Conversely, students were not very successful in tasks focused on chemical calculations. Teachers also shared their experiences with the escape game through a questionnaire. The teachers very positively evaluated the multidisciplinary nature of the escape game, especially the inclusion of mathematics.

    Keywords: high school, Interdisciplinary, inquiry-based learning, eduLARP game, LMS Moodle, Escape game

    Received: 22 Mar 2024; Accepted: 08 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Maršálek, Trčková and Václavíková. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Roman Maršálek, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czechia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.