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Learning through Escape: Developing Collaboration, Communication, and Confidence in a Biomedical Engineering Laboratory Escape Room

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies Division (ELOS) Technical Session 3: Best of ELOS

Tagged Division

Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies Division (DELOS)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--43409

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/43409

Download Count

302

Paper Authors

biography

Rachel C. Childers The Ohio State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-9430-4897

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Dr. Childers is an Associate Professor of Practice and Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies at the Ohio State University in the Biomedical Engineering department. Her teaching focus has been on hands-on BME laboratory courses. She is also interested in broadening participation and retention in BME.

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biography

Sunny Kwok The Ohio State University

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Abstract

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.

Childers, R. C., & Kwok, S. (2023, June), Learning through Escape: Developing Collaboration, Communication, and Confidence in a Biomedical Engineering Laboratory Escape Room Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43409

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