Exploring Exoplanets: Breakout Activity

Breakout activities are tabletop escape rooms where students solve a series of challenges in the context of an exciting scenario—a mystery to solve or a mission to complete.

In Exploring Exoplanets, students work together to avoid a collision with an asteroid, while on a mission to investigate exoplanets. They need to solve puzzles to regain control of their ship. This resource draws on introductory science concepts, including astronomy, ecosystems, Bohr–Rutherford diagrams, electron dot diagrams, absorption spectra, electric circuits, power generation, and interpreting graphs. The challenges range in difficulty from simple to complex. Because the puzzles function independently, teachers can choose to include only those puzzles that are appropriate for their students.

Exploring Exoplanets encourages effective teamwork and places emphasis on global competencies, such as collaboration, communication, and critical thinking—all used to solve the tasks, puzzles, and problems found in the challenges.

For more information about breakout activities, see the companion resource How to Use a Breakout Activity, also included in this package.