Escape Rooms: Mathematical Challenges Available to Educators

Abstract

This work shows the results of the research, applied to 38 students of the first grade of high school from a private institution who take the Mathematics course. This research aims to evaluate the Escape Rooms as a strategy to strengthen collaborative work, problem solving and logical reasoning on the part of students, through mathematical challenges; that are approached from Bruner's theory, which allows building mental representations using technological tools to practice, favoring the understanding of mathematics. The strategy used is based primarily on George Polya’s methodology for problem solving, where each of the challenges leads to respond to a specific situation of the proposed topic in the virtual classroom. Also, it is important to mention that Escape Rooms have fundamental elements to increase the motivation of the students; it is the narrative that awakens a curiosity to know a real or science fiction event, with the purpose of capturing the attention of the user to carry out certain actions that the teacher proposes in the educational field. Among multiple findings, relevant aspects were found in collaborative learning and there is a dominant trend in the group that applied gamification oriented to factors of fun, motivation, and active interest during Mathematics classes. In conclusion, the successful use of gamification promotes playful and practical learning in the classroom.