Hour of Code: Classroom Escape

Classroom Escape”, an activity that was part of the “Hour of Code” project, was conducted with 268 upper-grade students from four elementary schools during an IT class. The topic of the activity was marine flora and fauna, but the teaching itself belonged to the domain of Computational Thinking and Programming. Through four tasks, student teams, using a project-based approach and collaboration, had to uncover questions, answer them, and progress to the next level. Artificial intelligence was used in the “Teachable Machine” application on a connected computer. The activity utilised the Scratch Lab application, a Caesar cipher cylinder, Morse code, the ASCII table and computers with Internet access. Relatively complex content was taught using innovative methods-namely, a projectbased, multidisciplinary approach-making the lessons engaging, interesting, and appealing. Students are eager to learn through a project-based approach and gamification, even though they often rely on trial and error and sometimes struggle to find the solution. Educational games like “Classroom Escape” demonstrate an effective way to enhance the teaching and learning of programming concepts. A game-based approach can help engage students, improve their problem-solving skills, and develop their computational thinking abilities.