For the second year in a row we took our pop-up escape room the The Big Bang Fair in Birmingham – an event celebrating opportunities in STEM. Most schools that visit have a high proportion of students from backgrounds which are not well represented in STEM careers, so we were pleased to be there collaborating with other environmental charities showcasing the huge range of green careers available to young people. In fact the last room of our escape room is all about green careers – despite the common belief that a ‘green’ career involves putting on a pair of wellies and planting trees, we had some great discussions about how any career can be made ‘green’. We talked about being an environmental lawyer, designing video games to teach people about the climate, developing homes with sustainable materials… the list goes on.
1600 young people came through the doors of our escape room, and all of them learned something new about the planet – perhaps it was that there are more microplastics in the ocean than stars in the Milky Way, why our favourite fruit and veg would not exist without earthworms, or how exactly insulation keeps homes warm (we do a good experiment with a heat gun!). The aim of our escape room is to give students hope and knowledge about what they can do to help the planet. At the end of the experience, we ask them to think of something they could do in their own life to make a difference. Have a look at some of the pledges they wrote…
