What’s in the Box?
In recent years, the microelectronics industry has received significant national support to bolster supply chain resilience and maintain national security. This has led to substantial investments in new microelectronics facilities across the country, creating a growing demand for a skilled workforce. Excitingly, a new microelectronics packaging company has announced the establishment of a facility in our community, promising to employ over a thousand people. In collaboration with a local escape room, they have initiated a unique project to educate the community about microelectronics through an engaging and interactive Escape Room Box challenge. They’ve reached out to our class to help design this educational tool.
Our mission is to design a captivating, four-level escape room box that demystifies the inner workings of microchips, commonly viewed as the “little black box.” The Escape Room Box levels will include exploring the basics of microelectronics, coding to control devices, understanding logic circuits, and testing chip functionality. This project not only offers a fun and innovative learning experience but also connects our classroom with the cutting-edge advancements in the microelectronics field, preparing us for future opportunities in this dynamic industry. Our class will divide into groups of 3 to develop their own escape room box and the corresponding clues for solving/unlocking the box. We will then test these Escape Room Boxes and clues for each lock in class. This test will be completed by challenging the groups to solve each other’s boxes.
Core Content: Technical education, microelectronics, microcontroller hardware and programming, input and output devices, breadboards and circuits
Grade Level: 6-12
ME Connection: basics of semiconductor production, coding to control devices, using digital logic, testing integrated circuit functionality, and counterfeit microchips
Engineering Design Project: Students create an “escape room box” to demystify microchips. They design puzzles on microelectronics basics, coding, logic circuits, and counterfeit testing, preparing them for future opportunities in the semiconductor field.
