Escape ClassRoom: Can You Solve a Crime Using the Analytical Process?

Escape ClassRoom “CSI 1.0” is an educational escape room proposed as an interactive analytical chemistry exercise for the evaluation of undergraduate students at the end of the subject. This approach is a new form of live action learning activity in which the students have to solve an analytical problem, namely, “an alleged crime”. From this initial hypothesis, they have to investigate the crime by playing the role of trainee forensic chemists. As in any escape room, Escape ClassRoom “CSI 1.0” is a logical game in which the main objective is to discover several clues, to find hidden objects, and to solve a mystery in order to escape a “locked” room in an established time. The students play the role of forensic scientists and solve the alleged crime by following the scientific method in order to escape. To do so, they have to apply the whole analytical process from beginning to end, i.e., from a correct sampling at the crime scene, through the analysis of sample and data treatment until the interpretation of the results to validate the initial hypothesis: a murder has been committed. If it has, then who did it? The students’ knowledge in analytical chemistry and the teamwork are the only tools that they have to solve all of the riddles and uncover hidden messages to “win” while time is running out. This first experience showed the potential of an escape room to be used as an innovative educational tool easily applicable to other subjects.