2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Escape rooms are growing in popularity in higher education because they can be used to promote hands-on technical skills and soft skills like communication and collaboration. In addition, they provide an opportunity for students to develop mastery in these skills and improve confidence. This work describes the use of a laboratory-based escape room to test the teamwork ability of upper-level undergraduate student groups while employing technical skills and problem solving in a laboratory environment. Students use ultrasound, mechanical tests frames, spectrophotometers, micropipettes, scales, and other laboratory tools to solve puzzles within 55 minutes.
We evaluated the use of a previously described biomedical engineering laboratory escape room to evaluate how the perceptions of teamwork and communication are affected for an upper-level biomedical engineering laboratory course. We evaluated the effectiveness of assigning group members specific team roles and their effect on teamwork through these several parameters of success in the escape room. In addition, we present qualitative results from student survey responses (in an IRB determined exempt study) about their perceptions of teamwork, communication, and confidence during the activity.
When asked what students will take away from the learning experience, the most common theme was an emphasis on the importance of effective communication during a group task. The importance of assigned roles was the next most common theme, but it was divided by whether students thought it was a positive or a negative effect on the success of the escape room. In either case, students enjoyed the experience, claimed to learn about communication and teamwork, and that it improved their confidence.