CHEMICAL ESCAPE ROOM AS EDUCATIONAL TOOL

Abstract

Escape room can be an excellent educational tool for the establishment of teamwork, peer learning and communication competences within a school environment. It also provides an opportunity for making connections between real life concepts and the knowledge acquired in the traditional school system. An escape room including lab activities related to the acid-base concepts and identification of presence of natural products in common foodstuffs has been designed for the high school students aged 17-18, selected on the base of their high trimester grades in chemistry. The students were assigned to 4 working groups. The activities were conducted at the chemical laboratories of the Faculty of Science in Kragujevac. To examine students’ reflections regarding their experience in escape room, an evaluation questionnaire was developed. The obtained results have indicated that implementation of the escape room in the learning of chemical concepts is increasing students’ motivation, feeling of self-efficacy, teamwork competencies, as well as better understanding of the application of chemistry knowledge in everyday life.