Engaging Escape Games for Environmental Awareness

The target solutions for our project, "Engaging Escape Room Games for Environmental Awareness," are proposed by teachers from three countries. The project's goal was to provide access to a tool th...

The target solutions for our project, "Engaging Escape Room Games for Environmental Awareness," are proposed by teachers from three countries. The project's goal was to provide access to a tool that enabled innovative access to knowledge about climate change. Thanks to the involvement of a distributed team of teachers, a domino effect was achieved, resulting in knowledge and information spreading throughout the education system in three countries. The engaging nature of escape room games disrupts the effectiveness of teaching in a fun and engaging way. Indirectly, students are also part of the target group of this project. Escape room scenarios helped to better understand the world and become more sensitive. This, in turn, aligns with other goals, such as supporting the acquisition of environmental knowledge and the development of culture.

Teachers from partner schools were key players in developing lesson plans on climate protection. Teams of teachers were formed at all partner institutions to collaborate on creating engaging lesson plans. Through international teamwork, solutions were developed and planned to create an engaging collection of diverse lesson plans on environmental protection. Team consultations helped ensure teachers identified an appropriate interactive format for the lesson plans, which provided answers to complex global environmental issues in a fun, creative, and easy-to-understand way. The next step was to share the learning scenarios on the Hab and examine their impact on increasing awareness of environmental protection. The results were measured by pre- and post-activity surveys conducted among students and teachers. The project's activities significantly contributed to promoting knowledge by creating a community of well-prepared teachers who utilize engaging learning tools. As a result, the innovative format (Escape Room) became part of the school curriculum.

The main result of the project was the design of a website in four languages, featuring 20 lesson plans on environmental topics in an engaging, game-like format called Escape Rooms. Free access to the collection of lesson plans enabled the use of this tool in teaching among over 500 students from participating schools in Poland, Portugal, and Turkey. This promoted important information about environmental protection and the effects of climate change among project beneficiaries. Research has shown an increase in their knowledge and understanding by over 70%. Students also reported an increase in critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork skills by over 30%. Eighty education staff were also provided with access to resources and tools through the digital center. This allows teachers to teach about the environment in an innovative and engaging way to protect the Earth and slow down climate change.