The educational technology department of Yavneh Academy provided their fellow faculty members an opportunity to experience BreakoutEDU (a classroom version of escape the room) during an in-service on Election Day. BreakoutEDU is an immersive learning games platform that allows for the facilitation of games where players use teamwork and critical thinking to solve a series of challenging puzzles in order to open a locked box. Teachers participated in several examples of the BreakoutEDU games that require content knowledge, critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication to succeed in opening the locked boxes.

Teachers have already begun to give their students the keys to engaging BreakoutEDU sessions in order to practice and assess curricular skills. For example, in first grade, students completed one Breakout game requiring spelling and addition skills, and another centering around a classroom read aloud. First graders worked in groups as they raced the clock to solve each riddle, while teachers were able to support role-taking, critical thinking, collaboration and assess students’ content knowledge. The pictures of the event portray students’ rapid appreciation for this new approach to learning.