Escaping the Ordinary in the Classroom
This innovative education curriculum uses an escape room model to engage students in important life lessons.
Many of us have had that experience in school of feeling trapped in a boring lesson about a topic that didn’t seem to have any relevance to our lives. But as you watched the minute hand of the clock slowly tick by, did you ever dream about escaping?
Two young entrepreneurs at the Oregon Institute of Technology have channeled that feeling to create a new type of lesson plan to engage students. University students Molly Grace and Grant Kightlinger developed the “FairPlay Challenge,” a set of curricular kits modeled on the experience of an escape room. They use problem-solving and collaboration to challenge students to escape the boredom of traditional lessons and learn important knowledge and skills along the way.
This year they competed in Catalyze Klamath, an entrepreneurship camp held at Oregon Tech, and were chosen to move on to compete in the Invent Oregon competition, the only statewide collegiate prototyping competition.
We sat down with Molly to learn more about her journey as an entrepreneur and inventor, and why escaping the humdrum of everyday classwork might just be what students need to engage in their learning.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How do you describe your invention?
The “FairPlay Challenge” is a line of educational escape room kits targeted towards middle school students. Our mission is to bring creativity and originality to teachers while providing them an easy way to engage their students.
We currently have two escape room kits in our line. We have the “Escape from Vape,” which teaches about the dangers of e-cigarettes and vaping. For example, students solve a periodic table puzzle and search for clues in their classroom to discover the hazardous chemicals found in the vapes. And then we have the “Escape from the Grocery Store,” which is a nutrition curriculum teaching students what to look for when they’re in the grocery store so that they can buy healthy foods and stay within a budget. There are a few food deserts within Klamath Falls and our county, and food education has been lacking recently, especially within lower grade levels and middle school. With this kit, students have 30 minutes to help someone escape the grocery store by reading nutrition labels and decoding coupons.
How did you develop the idea of an escape room lesson?
At my internship for a local marketing agency — SmithBates MarComm Solutions — I worked on multiple integrated marketing campaigns within the community. One campaign that I had the privilege of working on was the “Escape from Vape” campaign in conjunction with the organization Healthy Klamath. They are taking on more initiatives to educate youth within Klamath Falls about the dangers of tobacco. We wanted to engage students into learning about why vaping is so dangerous. I was assigned to assist with the social media and digital marketing campaign, and when we were in a brainstorm session, the name of the campaign — “Escape from Vape” — inspired us. We thought doing an escape room was the perfect way to gamify a heavy topic that students don’t want to engage in because they either are participating in vaping or there is peer pressure from seeing their friends doing it.
Why did you choose middle school, and how did you try to differentiate your lesson plans from traditional teaching?
Our research told us that middle school is a very pivotal age and turning point in students’ education and mental development. But we were seeing that students weren’t engaged and interested in their education anymore. Teachers feel like they don’t have the time or support to create impactful lesson plans that are going to be engaging to these students.
“You can’t just identify a problem and create a solution without asking the people who are being directly affected by it.”
What was your first step to develop the curriculum?
We reached out to teachers within the school districts in our county. We partnered very closely with Ponderosa Middle School, and that’s where we launched our first escape room. We found that going to the source and asking exactly what the teachers and the students needed was the best first step. You can’t just identify a problem and create a solution without asking the people who are being directly affected by it.
Were you also able to channel your own experiences from middle school?
I felt like I was put back into the shoes of a middle schooler, and there were certain things that I had either forgotten about or hadn’t anticipated until going to a school and talking to the students. I was very outgoing in middle school, and it took me a while to learn not to dominate conversations within small group activities. So that was definitely a worry for me: how can we help all kinds of students — from those who are shy or maybe feel out of place, to those who are very extroverted and eager to participate? How do we create a level playing field for all of those students?
What we found is that a group of three is the optimal small group size, but unfortunately that wasn’t logistically possible with the average class sizes in Oregon today. So our kits are designed for four to six students within a team to effectively collaborate on the puzzles and challenges and learn the curriculum.
How did you convince educators that this would be an effective teaching method?
They were immediately swayed after seeing how engaged the students were with the escape room kits. In every classroom that we’ve used them in, every single student has successfully completed the escape room. That’s beyond what we could have hoped for.
We have teachers and parents reaching out constantly, asking us, “When’s the next escape room? Can we get this in our classrooms? How do we sign up?” That’s a great feeling, but it also can be overwhelming because we’re in our very early stages. And so we’re trying to figure out how we further develop our product and make sure that it’s completely ready before it hits the market.
Your project uses an approach similar to invention education, which emphasizes collaboration and real-world problem-solving. Why do you think this is a more effective teaching approach for students?
I think it’s extremely empowering. Giving students confidence and a belief in themselves is one of the most important things that needs to happen in our school systems. They need to understand that failure is a part of the process. Ideation and prototyping is not linear. I have failed so many times trying to create these escape kits, and that’s okay.
Who were your mentors throughout this process?
Hallie Neupert was our entrepreneurship advisor, University Innovation Fellowship (UIF) advisor, and the creator of the Catalyze Klamath entrepreneurship competition. Before I joined, I was not very connected in the Oregon Tech business and entrepreneurship community. And then I heard Hallie speak about the program and the kind of students that she wanted for it. I didn’t feel like I was that student yet, but I so badly wanted to be that student for her. She is an aspirational leader, and so giving and caring.
Other mentors were Kendra Santiago, the co-owner at SmithBates MarComm Solutions, and Kristy Weidman, the marketing professor who taught our entrepreneurship class and helped inspire us to take this idea and develop it further. They have all been key players in helping us build our creative confidence.
What kind of community support did you receive?
Hallie Neupert emphasized the importance of community partnerships and leaning on the people around you. Everybody was so willing to help. We partnered with some people in the Klamath Community College Small Business Development Center. There were a lot of community partners that we got to work with, which is really critical for students wanting to go into the entrepreneurial space.
My internship at SmithBates MarComm Solutions was integral. They helped us source high-quality materials and use their large format print presses. We partnered with Healthy Klamath, which was a part of the original partnership for the “Escape from Vape Room.” They’ve been great helping us collect data and connecting us with the correct resources to formulate our curriculum and see exactly what health problems our community is facing.
And then the school district, partnering specifically with Ponderosa Middle School — the administrative team, the principal and vice principals, and the Parent Teacher Association were all very integral. The parents’ perspective was a piece we had been missing for a while in this. They helped us shift our focus and realize all of the different audiences and touch points we’re hitting with these escape kits, even though our end users are students and teachers.
When did you first see yourself as an entrepreneur?
Being an entrepreneur has never been on my radar, especially in the educational space. I didn’t think that there was any possibility for us to be able to enter that space. This absolutely has changed my outlook on my future after college. We plan on continuing to develop our escape kit line and to hopefully expand out of Klamath County and further into Oregon. After that we hope to expand into other states in the Pacific Northwest, and hopefully into public schools nationally. Those are way down the line, but we think it’s possible.
What advice do you have for other young entrepreneurs?
I think a good sense of curiosity is honestly very important. That might not be one of the typical characteristics people would think of when they think of entrepreneurship, but I think that is what propelled Grant and me forward. Just being curious. What if we did this? What if we changed this? What’s actually happening in our classrooms? And what is the data telling us?
Also, a lot of entrepreneurs want to hold their cards close to their chest and not give away their ideas. But that’s not how you create strong solutions or develop good products. You have to play your hand and collaborate with others.
