Last summer, Holiday Park Elementary launched HPE’s Digital Escape Room Challenge, a new digital platform to help students in PBSD combat the “summer slide” in reading and math. The “summer slide” is the academic regression which occurs over the summer, when students have less opportunity to practice and reinforce what they have learned during the school year.
Studies show that two months of reading skills are lost over the summer. According to the Northwest Evaluation Association, students also lose more recall as the years pass. They say regression increases in the higher grades because of the cumulative need to re-teach concepts from the previous year. It’s been estimated that students lose about a third to one-half of what was learned during the school year over the summer months.
The innovative digital platform of newly-created math and reading escape rooms helped bridge this gap. The platform takes on all the same elements of a live escape room. Incoming fifth- and sixth-grade students will be “locked” into an interactive puzzle-filled environment. Students were given one summer to escape rooms filled with interactive puzzles. The rooms challenged students’ thinking, their ability to articulate ideas, and demonstrate advanced problem-solving skills. Just as in a live escape room, hidden objects, codes, puzzles, and secret areas stood between the students and the final key. False clues, misleading trails, deadlocks, and blind leads tested the students’ patience and resilience.
The challenge included these components:
• Standards Based Questions & Content for ELA and Math
• Links to Prodigy Math & Math Fact Fluency Practice
• Audio Books Uploaded from 5th and 6thGrade Summer Reading Lists
(Special thanks to HPE /PTA Funding)
• Fun Challenges: Uploading Art in mycommunity pictures, Summer STEM Challenges,
HPE Active Challenge, & CHAMPS (Positive Behavior Management) Challenge
“HP is excited about the 2nd Annual Digital Summer Reading and Math program, as last school year, over 300 students participated, said Dr. Sciullo, Principal of Holiday Park Elementary. “During the summer, this gives all fifth and sixth graders an opportunity to continue refining their skills while navigating a highly engaging escape room platform.“
The 2020 Digital Escape Room begins on Tuesday, May 26, 2020 and will run throughout the upcoming summer months. The challenge is almost set up! Which teams will escape?