Student STEM Escape Room Project
By Andrea Smith, PVF Program and Communications Associate
The Excursion Grant Program, funded by The Geballe Family and The Maxwell-Hanrahan Foundation, is one of our most popular teacher grant programs that we offer. Created to bring joy and new experiences to children who lack the opportunities, these grants provide up to $1,000 for teachers to take their students on any kind of field trip. For many teachers, these grants allow them to teach beyond the restrictions of the classroom and incorporate important hands-on learning. For many students, these field trips mark the first time they are visiting a particular place, such as the beach, a museum, or San Francisco.
Donna Hong, a teacher at Panorama Elementary School in Daly City, recently utilized an Excursion Grant to take her 5th grade students on a field trip to Fisherman’s Wharf where they participated in the Student STEM Escape Room Project and learned how engineers and tech experts bring the game to life.
Below read all about how Donna Hong and her class learned how to make escape room’s come to life.
“My class had an incredible experience at the Student STEM Escape Room! I asked students to use the following skills while in their escape rooms; actively engage in solving puzzles, cooperate with each other, communicate using appropriate language, use teamwork, encourage one another and use perseverance to continue to work on puzzles.
They all were serious, engaged and excited! I was so impressed and proud! I know many of my students will never be able to have this kind of experience and they all LOVED it!
Students explored four rooms, The Gold Rush, Special Ops: Mysterious Market The Depths and Timeliner: Train Through Time. At the end students were taken back into the escape room they completed and were shown how the puzzles were reset. They were also taken to “headquarters” to see the hub of the experience! Questions were answered and minds were blown!
An added bonus was that our bus took us by Oracle Park, Cupid’s Span (the giant bow and arrow they learned about in Art), the Exploratorium and on to Fisherman’s Wharf’s famous Jefferson St. all places most of my students have never been. It was a memorable excursion!”
PVF’s Excursion Grants Program will reopen for the 2024-2025 school year this Fall.
