Escape Room - What's the MATTER? (Science - Materials and their Properties

Using an Escape Room to develop curriculum knowledge is an exciting activity that will inspire learners from 3rd Grade to 6th Grade.

The curriculum content of this Escape Room is linked to:

Materials and their properties

The aim of the Escape Room is to provide jeopardy for the children to work under pressure to solve 9 clues to help them from saving the world as materials throughout the world are mysteriously changing forms.

Before beginning, you will need to prepare the following:

• A copy of the Pupil Workbook for each group
• A set of table activities for every group – prepared beforehand and given to each group after they have all completed each Code Key activity
• IT sources and research materials
• Initial Starting Script sharing the problem to the children
• Completion Script celebrating the completion of the challenge

Children do not need prior knowledge of the topic above to complete this Escape Room, as the research will support the answers and each Code Key is supported with several clues. This Escape Room is ideal as a review of learning.

The activity begins by the teacher reader the Initial Message received. It clearly tells the children that they are required to save the Earth from a strange phenomenon which is seeing materials changing form – solids and becoming liquids, liquids and turning to gases and gases are becoming solids – the Earth is in danger! The only way they can save the Earth is to solve 9 Code Keys. Failure is not an option for the future of the Earth!

What follows are 9 challenges which the children must solve to discover the code to move onto the next activity.

Each activity focuses and builds the children’s knowledge on many aspects of materials and their properties.

The 9 activities are based on the following outcomes:

• Be able to draw the scientific features of solids, liquids and gases
• Know the features of solids, liquids and gases
• Know types of materials within solids, liquids and gases, and other properties which materials might have
• Link materials to their features
• Be able to label the water cycle with scientific vocabulary
• Chemical and Physical Changes
• Name the only natural material which is a solid, a liquid and a gas
• Review of learning within the topic of Materials and their properties.

When all 9 activities are completed, and the children have gained the correct Code Keys from each activity, the teacher can read the final communication detailing how the children have been able to save the Earth.

Setting up the Escape Room

1. Children should be split into groups of no more than four and be placed in their own work space.

2. Access to IT and research materials should be provided to allow children to research answers to questions and review their own knowledge, as well as checking answers.

3. Each group should have a Code Key Booklet and decide on a team name

4. Read the Initial Message to the children to set the challenge in context. Discuss what this means, and what the activity entails.

5. Hand each group a copy of Code Key 1. Agree with the children a set time to complete the problem in – this ensures that the children stay on task and maintains the Escape Room element of working under pressure.

6. At the end of the time, children should have filled in the Code Key in their booklet. The teacher can then check the accuracy of all the groups and talk through the responses the children should have.

7. Move on through the remaining challenges until all 9 have been completed.

8. For those groups who have been successful, they are then able to read the completed statement where they find out if they have escaped the Escape Room and saved the Earth!

There are other ways of running Escape Room activities, for example, each activity could be set up on 8 tables (with the 9th Challenge the groups all doing at the same time) and the children then move from table to table completing the activity. This would reduce the need for as many resources, and access to non-fiction sources and Internet Resources could then be targeted at specific Challenges.

The Escape Room should last for 2 hours.

We hope that your children enjoy this Escape Room.

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INSPIReducation