Galileo XR escape room: application of the scientific method in the discovery of physical phenomena with micro:bit programming, experiments and deciphering

A large-scale approach to STEM promotion has been rolled out by the European Commission (EC) in 2015 under the name Science is Wonderful (SiW), which bring together students, teachers, and researchers to discuss STEM topics on a more abstract level.  For the 2023 edition, the respective subject area researchers and teachers were given a rare opportunity to team up and to co-create learning material (experiment, quiz, game, or any other activity) that must have a real-life application.  Among all SiW proposals, our submission was ranked by the EC among the best three proposals – Galileo XR escape room: application of the scientific method in the discovery of physical phenomena with micro:bit programming, experiments and deciphering or shortly Galileo XR: finding the forgotten scientist, and selected to be translated into multiple languages, spoken within the EU, and for further professional development.

The material repository at hand proposes a game-based educational process for 7–15-year-old students which motivates them to critically assess fundamental physical phenomena (e.g., light), formulate a basic hypothesis, evaluate their thinking by programming SBCs to capture the relevant measurement data, and disseminate about the lessons learned to their peers. They participate in a game like treasure hunt, tackling physics-based challenges and deciphering clues, with the goal of finding the forgotten scientist. The activity is named after Galileo Galilei, the father of the scientific method.