Laurel Higham of Patterson, N.Y., a member of the class of 2019 majoring in robotics engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), was a member of a student team that recently completed an intense, hands-on research through the WPI project center in Australia. The project was titled A means to foster STEM interest: A mystery room at Banksia Gardens Community Services. In their project summary, the students wrote, "Our project aimed to increase student engagement in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) by creating a mystery room for Banksia Gardens Community Services."
"The mystery room made use of a theme, narrative, puzzles, actor, and immersive environment to engage participants. To complete this project, we researched learning styles and the mystery room design processes, built a room, and evaluated how engaging the experience was. We developed an iterative design-feedback process to create a mystery room that incorporated visual, auditory, and kinesthetic components while introducing STEM concepts to the participants. Our project resulted in a mystery room that engaged multiple learning types and presented fun and easy-to-learn science facts. Throughout our process, we learned that our mystery room required an actor and a linear flow of puzzles to be more effective as an educational tool".