![]() The company is adding the ability to create student accounts, giving each teacher insight into a student’s grasp of the lessons at hand. Next year, teachers who use Breakout EDU will have an extra gadget in their educational tool belt. There is always that one person who tries to help guide you to the finish line.” When we get to do that, it boosts productivity. “We already know this stuff, but we get to use computers and talk it out with our friends. “It’s an amazing feeling when you get that lock that you’ve been trying to unlock for five minutes,” says seventh-grader Brandon Huston. Lefler and Thomas were thankful for a grant from the Billings Education Foundation that helped put 18 of them at Ben Steele Middle School, benefiting more than 250 kids.Īs the students pack up their kits and revel in their educational victories, it’s clear they love the excitement of trying to beat the clock to put their smarts to use. Right now, Billings School District 2 has 74 kits in classrooms all over town. Who is the great communicator? Who is the really shy one that we need to keep an extra eye on?” “We can look at how these kids work together. “You will see some people are sitting back more as observers and others are more hands-on,” Brucker says. “All that did was rob them of the opportunity to discover the answer themselves.”Īs Brucker talks, she points to groups of kids in Lefler and Thomas’ class. When she saw the lightbulb go on in kids and saw the lessons they’d learned in class being used within the game, she says, “I had this moment where I thought, ‘I have been doing this all wrong!’” In the past, Brucker says, she found herself “swooping in” to help those kids who were struggling. 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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