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10 Year Old Girl Wins Gold Medal from Serious Play For Escape Game Made Out of a Backpack


Image credit: The logo Lili has designed for her game

 A 10 year old girl from Chambery, France, has won a Gold Medal in the International Serious Play Awards for an Escape Game she made out of her school backpack.

Image credit: Lili leans in to watch teachers explore and evaluate her escape game for use in elementary school classes

Lili Guyat-Michel doesn't like doing homework because it isn’t as much fun as the interactivity of a school classroom. So, she decided to turn homework into a game, using her backpack. It’s called The Mysterious Cartable (Cartable means schoolbag in French). The game invites students to “escape” from their homework by solving clues, all the while completing school assignments.

Lili designed a prototype for her escape game using pens, paper, glue, scissors, a diary, a ruler and other items used in an elementary school as clues. Children must use their skills in math, history or geography to unlock different padlocks.

School supplier and stationary supplier Maped has asked her to design a whole collection of escape games, using a backpack as the “box” or container for the game.

Lili has plans to launch a website to help other kids and teachers develop their own games. She has also opened a site to fundraise for her project. Donations can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-mysterious-cartable

During a session at Serious Play Conference-Montreal in July, Lili explained how she launched her project and explained how to play the game to K12 teachers and other judges. The eventual result: A Gold Medal for her entry, the first for an elementary school student.

Serious Play offers award competitions for student games as well as professional digital and tabletop games. For more information on award categories and deadlines, go to www.seriousplayconf.com and try the pull down on Awards.

Lili has her own website (in French and English). Learn more about her backpack project, go to: www.themysteriouscartable.com

Media Contacts:

Sue Bohle
Executive Director
Serious Play Events
310 721 9083

Helene Michel
Professor
Grenoble Ecole de Management
Helene.MICHEL@grenoble-em.com
0033 652 641 693