Escape the Math
Julia Rivera
Math Department/New York City College of Technology
Mat1275CO (College Algebra and Trigonometry)
Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity
Group Activity: Escape Room game about Factoring. There are 5 puzzles to complete within the hour
Independent Activity: Escape Room game about Quadratics l. They had 5 puzzles to complete within the hour.
Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?
For this acitivity my goal was to get students motivated in learning math while being in groups vs doing the work independenthly. I wanted to observe if students do better when they work independently or when they work in groups
Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?
I used this activity during the beginning, middle and end of semester. I did this acitivity after I lectured giving students at least an hr to complete and discuss.
Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?
I needed to create to different handouts with different exercises. The handout would be given during the group activity and the other handout would be given during independent work. After I instructed the factoring lesson. I told students they had one hr to complete the challenges.
Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?
To assess the students I would walk around and observe how students were as a group vs how they were independently. I noticed students that work in groups were less dependent of me then students working independently. Then after I gave the students 2 surveys to fill out. The surveys asked questions on whether they enjoyed the activity as a group or if they enjoyed the activity when working alone. I asked them how they felt when asked to be put in groups and what they felt when they were asked to do the activity by themeselves.
Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?
I believed the acitivity went well. During the group activity, students were able to communicate with each other and also look at other teams to get some advice or motivation from them. During the independent activity students were more quiet but they were in competition with one another since it was an escape game activity. I did provide extra credit for those that did escape on time. However for the students that did not escape on time had homework assignment. Also I noticed from the surveys is that students actually prefer to work alone than in groups. Cons in working groups was that they felt rushed and they weren’t sure if they were able to keep up with their peers. Pros was that they were able to compare answers and it did help them communicate better and they had fun exploring and seeing other peers answers. Also listening to music while working helps motivate them.
I would repeat this activity but instead of an escape game I’ll probably just give them a handout and ask them to work in groups and then another day ask them to work independently. Overall they enjoyed the activity and I would recommend other Professors to try it. It’s just creating the game will take some time that’s all.
Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GpFfiHfyneEFM3iG7mKFB6-hVcTWNGa0/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14y4mZ1lzMTdmAfIv1GHei5vSMPudWAsL/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ITaQyk2ubHv7yrtk5DzqOIFlf0cSs2mQ/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZXWfN01ZJxv8rZCWorsvJ-UzRUb_-HyJ/view?usp=drivesdk
Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab
