Playfully and excitingly practicing German in the Escape Room
Games can be used to practice various skills in a diverse way in German lessons. That's why teachers like to use them again and again. Games are more fun for learners than other types of exercises for applying and consolidating what they have learned in the foreign language. In addition, they also promote cross-curricular skills such as communication or teamwork skills.
ZEITGEISTER, the Goethe-Institut's virtual Escape Rooms offer Canadian German teachers the opportunity to enter a thematic room online with their students, where players must work in teams to solve various puzzles and tasks to reach the goal.
Each Escape Room features a well-known German-speaking personality from different eras: Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, the singer Nena, the activist Carola Rackete, researcher and author Peter Wohlleben, and author and antiracism educator Tupoka Ogette. Teachers receive teaching materials from the Goethe-Institut to help them prepare for and follow up on the virtual class visit.
How does it work?
The Escape Rooms are located on the gather.town platform. After making an appointment, teachers and participants will receive the password to enter the GOETHE-HUB and start the exciting game. Write an e-mail tovera.degtyarenko@goethe.de for more information about the game and to receive the password for the platform.
The stops
Here is a brief overview of what to expect in the game
The story revolves around prominent German-speaking figures who have significantly influenced our world. The task of the players is to travel to certain places and help these people complete their deeds.
Mission: The players are in 1930 at Albert Einstein's summer residence in Bern. The physicist has forgotten his beloved violin. Find it for him!
Concept: The team is in a room where there are pictures and notes. The pictures are puzzles with codes, texts or clues that have to be discovered. The team has to piece together the solution with the given information.
Action: The team coordinates, tells each other what they have discovered and passes the information to each other. After each solution, a new clue emerges about what to look for.
Mission: In 1982, Nena is looking for musicians for her band in Berlin. The search leads through East and West Berlin, which are separated by a wall.
Concept: Nena is looking for four musicians for her band. The team enters a map - divided by the wall into East Berlin and West Berlin - with many buildings. The team has to find people, decipher clues and work out the solutions.
Action: The team has to understand sentences, share information and decipher clues. To do this, they must also communicate information beyond the Berlin Wall.
Goal: Find the nicknames of the band members and explore the area!
Mission: In Vienna's Café Central in 1900, the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud is wanted. Can you help the messenger find him?
Concept: Around 1900, in the Viennese coffee house Café Central: The team has to find someone who knows where Freud is (Freud's daughter Anna).
Action: The players go from table to table and listen to the conversations and situations. By planning together and sifting through the results, they can narrow down the tables more and more until they find "Anna Freud".
Mission: In 2019, the Sea Watch is in port and cannot set sail. Can you help captain Carola Rackete get the ship moving again?
Concept: It's 2019 and the Sea Watch is in port and can't get underway. The team is not on board yet. Help Carola Rackete understand what's going on with the ship.
Goal: Find the ship's damage underground, decode the room it is in, in order to pass the information to Carola Rackete.
Action: In this maze puzzle, team members must walk around and find the correct paths to the rooms through trial and error. Clues that are found must be translated (decoded) and combined!
Mission: Leipzig, 2033. Tupoka Ogette has to go to the train station because she is hosting an anti racism talk in another city in Germany. Her colleague, Stephen, has the train tickets, but she can't find him. Find him and the tickets and find out which German city Tupoka must travel to.
Concept: It's 2033 at a media and production house in Leipzig. Tupoka must find her colleague Stephen and find out which German city she is travelling to for her next talk.
Goal: Find Stephen and locate his cell phone in order to access the train ticket details and destination name.
Action: In this scavenger hunt-like escape room, team members must work together and speak with many characters throughout the multi-story media and production house in order to get closer to finding Stephen and the train tickets. Pay close attention to the descriptions and pointers!
Mission: Wershofen, 2023. The mythical creatures in the forest are rejoicing: an animal that was long gone has returned! Peter wants to know which animal it is.
Concept: It's 2023 in a forest in Wershofen where Peter Wohlleben is working on his Urwald (primeval forest) project. An animal that had previously abandoned the forest due to deforestation and flooding has recently returned as a result of Wohlleben's restoritive efforts and research. But which animal is it?
Goal: Found out which animal has returned to the primeval forest.
Action: In this maze puzzle, team members must walk around and find the correct paths through trees and flooded areas. By interacting with mythical characters along the way, players will find the right path. But be careful, one wrong move may send you back to the start!
