I thought, ‘What have I been doing all these years?’ I was talking at kids and teaching them and hoping it all sunk in.” “School started and I brought it out to a classroom like this, set it up and played it with the kids. The kit, she explains, features a series of boxes, a handful of locks and full access to the platform of games offered through the company. “So, I ordered a kit when I got home,” Brucker says. Once the kids put the pictures in chronological order, they shine the black light found in the first locked box on the back of the paper to reveal a series of arrows that match up with slide lock outfitted with the same directional arrows. As one locked box is popped, it reveals a piece of paper showing each stage of cell division jumbled on the page. Each cluster of kids has the same set of tools. “Hey, I think I’ve got something!” one boy exclaims. They have only 30 minutes and, for now, the only clue is a web link written on a slip of paper. In order to see cells and explore, they have to put their own brain cells to use to unlock the cabinet. A story sets up the game’s mission: The kids are told the science teacher left the key to the microscope cabinet on her desk and the evening custodian locked it in a box. Today, the hints embedded in the game put these students’ knowledge of cell division - anaphase, meiosis and mitosis - to the test. “They are actually using all of those right now.” “In the educational industry, the big focus in 21st-century learning is the four C’s - creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking,” says Ann Brucker, game developer and community manager with Breakout EDU. This is Breakout EDU, an escape-room-style educational challenge designed to get kids to work together and use what they’ve learned in class in an “out of the box” way.
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