New Perspectives in Science Education

In escape room games players are given clues, tasks and puzzles they have to solve within a certain period of time in order to achieve a goal [1]. Due to the increasing popularity of these escape room games, similar rooms have been developed in educational contexts, aiming to take advantage of the potential benefits of an escape room: increased motivation, training of team skills and promotion of creativity in unfamiliar contexts [2]. In the escape room Glyphoscape - The Forgotten Lab, students aged 16-18 explore an old, abandoned laboratory owned by a scientist who conducted private research on the herbicide glyphosate, while deepening their biochemical knowledge about pesticides, glyphosate and the inhibition of enzymes. To protect his research, the lab was sealed with various puzzles. These puzzles are presented int three sections: (1) the theoretical basis of pesticides and their general mechanisms of action, (2) enzymes and their structure and (3) enzyme inhibition. After each section, the contents are secured by a gatekeeper puzzle and transferred to glyphosate before the next section can be reached. The participants have to solve each puzzle to get out of the lab. After successful completion of the escape room game, students will be able to explain enzyme inhibition in general and the inhibition of 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) by glyphosate in the shikimate pathway in particular.

Keywords: escape room game, glyphosate, pesticides, herbicides, biochemistry, enzymes.

References:

1. Nicholson, S. (2015). Peeking Behind the Locked Door: A Survey of Escape Room Facilities. Retrieved from http://scottnicholson.com/pubs/erfacwhite.pdf.
2. Veldkamp, A., Daemen, J., Teekens, S., Koelewijn, S., Knippels, M.-C. P. J., & Joolingen, W. R. (2020). Escape boxes: Bringing escape room experience into the classroom. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(4), 1220–1239.