The carnivorous yoghurts: A “serious” escape game for stirring labs

Résumé En

This paper presents feedback on the implementation of an educational escape game to replace the first hour of a 4 -h lab session.Two problems were encountered when teaching stirring in chemical engineering labs: on the one hand, learners had difficulties preparing calculations before practical work, as they were unable to find out by themselves how to calculate dimensionless numbers from measured quantities; on the other hand, manipulations during stirring labs are extremely easy or even boring: learners just have to implement the tank, vary the rotation speed, read the torque value, change the stirrer and start over.The goal of the educational escape game we have developed was to make the working data of the lab meaningful by preparing the lab session with the learners for one hour. We also wanted to make them autonomous during the lab session and make the stirring lab session less boring. With the introduction of this one-hour game, the lab session was reduced to three hours; this was not a problem however because -thanks to the game- the learners were much more efficient and got straight to the point during the practical work. The game “Carnivorous Yoghurts” is a card game, along the lines of popular domestic escape games, developed by one teacher and two pedagogical engineers.The implementation of this educational game was successful: the learners became totally autonomous, very efficient and they were excited about the game. The engineering skills of stirring labs are still acquired, probably in slightly greater depth thanks to the "flow" effect; traditional soft skills achieved during labs are strengthened (teamwork and communication) and new soft skills are acquired (cooperation and decision co-construction).