Mirror Mirror on the Wall: Escape a Remote Virtual Stereochemistry Lab Together

Abstract

The quest in the "Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Which Chiral Drug Is the Fairest of Them All?" escape room activity was to find an enantiomer drug that cures a "sleeping sickness". Based loosely on the story of Snow White, first-year pharmacy student pairs had 50 min to solve gamified stereochemistry quizzes (tasks 1−4), collect four letter clues to unlock the final puzzle, and escape the lab. The escape room activity was held after a synchronous instructor-led lab briefing. Guided by the revised Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, the synchronous practical session leveraged a combination of three online platforms: Miro Board, Quizizz, and Google Forms in the Cisco Webex virtual environment. The Cisco Webex's breakout room feature helped facilitate teamwork and communication during the escape room game. Students' responses during the debriefing session indicated enhanced students' interactions and remote learning experiences throughout the virtual stereochemistry practical during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chem’Sc@pe: an Organic Chemistry Learning Digital Escape Game

“…As a result, learning it depends on students’ representational and spatial thinking abilities. In this regard, gamification of stereochemistry has been shown to increase student comprehension and engagement in this topic. ,,,,,,,, …”

“…Virtual escape games including those relying on augmented reality , have emerged, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. ,,,− Many educational escape rooms have an appealing story line which creates an immersive experience putting players in a specific role with a meaningful purpose, such as solving a mystery ,,, or a crime, ,, saving people or even humanity. , …”

“…Gamification of organic chemistry courses have been reported in the literature. ,,,,− However, only a few escape game activities have been reported so far. ,, Yet, this subject is often considered as one of the most difficult by first year students, leading to many failures and dropouts. Therefore, we designed an organic chemistry escape game to help students engage with their studies through a gratuitous, stimulating, fun, and educative game activity.…”

ChemEscape: Redox and Thermodynamics─Puzzling Out Key Concepts in General Chemistry

“…Learning through play allows students to engage with learning objectives in a novel manner, challenging students to move beyond rote memorization and begin to apply critical thinking skills in the application of information. − Research by Yang and Chang showcases the impact of gamified learning, noting that learning through games significantly improved students’ critical thinking skills, increased their achievement, and assisted in the retention of developed critical thinking skills one month later . In light of the benefits of gamified learning, chemistry courses have begun to expand their active learning tool-box to include chemistry themed games such as boardgames, − card games, − and escape room-style activities both in-person ,− and virtually. − Escape rooms in particular have grabbed both student and educator interest due to their highly interactive and explorative nature. − Throughout an escape room experience participants are required to solve a series of puzzles using clues (information given within the game) and hints (additional information provided by the facilitator) . For education purposes, the puzzles within learning escape rooms are tailored to match course specific learning objectives .…”

“…Like public escape rooms, students often struggle to determine a clear path of progression in puzzle solution, which can lead to initial nervousness, time lost, demotivation, and student frustration . Many students note that the clues provided and their attention to said clues heavily influence the difficulty of the activity. ,,, When students were probed on their experience with escape room-style games, four themes began to emerge: (1) they are a fun yet challenging activity, (2) they enhance knowledge and understanding, (3) they foster teamwork and communication, and (4) there is insufficient playtime. ,,,, ChemEscape is a portable escape room-type activity featuring chemistry themed puzzles aligned with, typically, postsecondary classroom learning objectives. When previous ChemEscape participants were asked to reflect on their experience with puzzle solution (focused on general chemistry or polymer chemistry), most students reported confusing instructions (clues and/or facilitator comments) causing the most difficulty (Figure ).…”