Gamification of Outreach and Learning: Creation of Physics and Astronomy Escape Rooms
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Hull
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
The overall aim of this award is to create, deploy, and evaluate a suite of games constructed in an "escape room" manner based on science and infrastructure supported directly by STFC.
This is an entirely new way to conduct outreach and education that to our knowledge has only been tried previously in a few places around the world, and never with STFC science and technology.
The impact will be the generation of a new outreach methodology with direct relevance to STFC science that is able to reach audiences that other approaches may not have got to before. It will create a legacy of deployable escape rooms for the University of Hull staff to exhibit at relevant events, and a set of instructions that teachers and practitioners around the world can subsequently make use of in their own outreach escape room activities.
This is an entirely new way to conduct outreach and education that to our knowledge has only been tried previously in a few places around the world, and never with STFC science and technology.
The impact will be the generation of a new outreach methodology with direct relevance to STFC science that is able to reach audiences that other approaches may not have got to before. It will create a legacy of deployable escape rooms for the University of Hull staff to exhibit at relevant events, and a set of instructions that teachers and practitioners around the world can subsequently make use of in their own outreach escape room activities.
Planned Impact
Our intent is to create our escape rooms from commonly available household items, easily printable documentation, and publically available code that can be run in standard internet browsers. This is both an intentional design feature, and one that means our escape rooms can readily be brought to a wider audience.
Accordingly, we will disseminate how to run our escape rooms online through the E.A.Milne Centre for Astrophysics website, with additional relevant documentation (i.e. safety) produced as an integral part of this.
Learning outcomes and outputs will be written for publication via open access channels in recognized journals (e.g., European Journal of Physics, published by the UK Institute of Physics) and manuscript archives (i.e., arXiv) that constitute open access green channels.
Accordingly, we will disseminate how to run our escape rooms online through the E.A.Milne Centre for Astrophysics website, with additional relevant documentation (i.e. safety) produced as an integral part of this.
Learning outcomes and outputs will be written for publication via open access channels in recognized journals (e.g., European Journal of Physics, published by the UK Institute of Physics) and manuscript archives (i.e., arXiv) that constitute open access green channels.
| Description | Our work on this grant has developed novel "Escape Rooms" based on the astrophysics and physics that underpins STFC's remit. We have built the escape rooms -- both hardware and software -- from scratch and have trained up a set of demonstrators to safely deploy them to the general public in order to improve the public understanding of science. |
| Exploitation Route | We have developed in-depth knowledge on how to create and operate physical and portable escape rooms that not only engage and encourage team work, but simultaneously promote the public understanding good parts of STFC's science remit. This represents an increasingly popular way in which to engage the general public, but specifically tailored toward science. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Education |
| Description | We have demonstrated that we can take ideas and concepts from within STFC's remit (e.g., nucleosynthesis of the elements) and transform them into an engaging escape room format that appeals to a wide audience, as attested to by the popularity of professional escape rooms across the nation and the range of individuals attracted to our open testing event early in 2020. Our approach has inspired colleagues and outreach specialists within other disciplines to look at this approach and develop their own escape rooms. We anticipate that once COVID-19 restrictions are fully lifted, we will be able to resume activity on deployment of the hardware and be better placed to investigate the wider societal impacts that this format can achieve and address interest from other interested parties who are already aware of our success in creating such escape rooms. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Education |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | British Science Association |
| Organisation | University of Hull |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Our team provided the intellectual input to the project and built the escape rooms from scratch. |
| Collaborator Contribution | As part of the funding, the British Science Association provided additional funds to help secure locations for public deployment of our escape rooms, in addition to helping fund the hardware and providing feedback on aspects of the escape rooms. |
| Impact | Outputs have been rendered impossible due to COVID-19 for the time being with respect to this. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Open Testing of Escape Room at University of Hull |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | 16 undergraduates, postgraduates, PDRAs, and lecturing staff attending an open testing of the escape rooms at the University of Hull following a general invitation. This sparked questions and discussion afterward with ways to improve the presentation of the escape room noted and acted upon prior to anticipated deployment at schools and science festivals. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |