by Rachael Phiasanaxay
What is a Quest Challenge?
Quest Challenges seeks to create and offer outdoor adventures which promote collaboration and team building, enhance creativity and productivity and develop self-confidence and resilience.
Quest Challenges are like an escape room, a scavenger hunt and an immersive theatre experience all rolled into one, using the outdoor environment to set the stage.
What does a Quest Challenge experience look like?
Each ‘Quest’ is developed around a story within which the participants become an integral part. They must navigate their team around the story location using a map, find the characters, help them remove their obstacles, solve puzzles, undergo creative challenges and find out the missing information needed to be successful. They must complete the ‘Quest’ to be the heroes of the story.
Each story is usually connected to the location in which the quest is taking place or can be structured around a theme or topic if it is part of a unit of work. The characters bring the story to life and challenge the participants to problem-solve and imagine their world in new ways.
Who can use a Quest Challenge experience?
| Educators can use stories to enrich the learning experience by developing a dynamic learning experience that challenges students whilst building confidence and understanding through collaboration and authentic connections. For example; Quest Challenges have been used by educators to introduce students to a range of skills required to become peer mentors at their school. Whilst the narrative was historical, the students had to engage with the characters to find out the situation with the aim at the end of the quest to come up with some suggestions to reconcile them. Another school used Quest Challenges to create an experience for their new intake of students to become more acquainted with their new school and to learn something unique about the history of their school’s location as well as getting to know each other, learning how to work together and collaborating to achieve a shared goal. As an educator myself, I use the method to create a sense of mystery and intrigue in a lesson. |
| Educational institutions can use it for fun and challenging professional or personal development activities for staff or students getting them actively engaged in learning and responding in a collaborative environment. |
| Organisations or businesses can use it to rebuild a sense of community or strengthen their teams due to remote working. |
| Parents can use it for a novel birthday party idea. |
| Individuals can use it to meet new people and get out into the countryside. Or gather a group of friends to experience a fun and challenging activity together. |
What are the benefits?
The benefits of using this method in the classroom or developing a larger scale experience for a community event are based on the following 4 concepts which underpin the whole experience; connection, engagement, support and growth.
Connection – a different and exciting way to work together.
Engagement – an experience that engages participants in a meaningful way.
Support – an opportunity to build resilience and learn to support each other.
Growth – an environment in which growth is nurtured and encouraged – through the expansion of comfort zones.
Hear more about the benefits from some Quest Challenge participants!
Learn how to make your own interactive adventure for students in our March workshop!
“I think my biggest take away is being taken out of the box that we are usually in; working with different people in a whole different environment, with different challenges that you’re not used to. And when you come together with a different group of people with a skill set and a mind set of collaboration and teamwork anything is possible and the creativity and innovation that comes from that is just inspiring. As an educator, it’s just given me the insight of how you can bring that into the classroom. I mean how inspiring and empowering it was for us, imagine if we did it for kids and have that same kind of authentic connection with Laos and the culture in that way.”
Teacher Vientienne International School, Laos – Community Team Building Quest