Day 6 - Six Geese a-Laying and Bloom's Taxonomy

The Golden Eggs of Intentional Design

In The Twelve Days of Christmas, the six geese a-laying produce something valuable. Golden eggs don’t appear by accident. They emerge when conditions are right.

That’s a powerful metaphor for learning design.

When learning objectives and assessments are intentionally aligned, something valuable emerges: clarity, confidence, and evidence of real learning. When they’re not, learners get stuck halfway up the ladder.

Day 6 of our 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways features Bloom’s Barnyard, an interactive escape room created by Shawna Stushnoff, Gamification Master Craftsman in training and Senior Instructional Designer and Outcomes and Assessment Manager at New Mexico State University Global Campus.

This experience teaches Bloom’s Taxonomy not through lecture or memorization, but through play.

Six geese guard the six cognitive levels: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create. A mischievous swan has scattered them across the barnyard, and your task is to restore order by demonstrating true alignment at each level.

As you move through the experience, you will:

• Match cognitive levels to measurable verbs

• Sequence learning from recall to creation

• Identify misalignment between objectives and assessments

•  Evaluate whether assessments measure what objectives claim

• Create your own aligned objective-assessment pair

By the time you escape, you won’t just know Bloom’s Taxonomy.
You’ll have experienced it.

Along the way, the game models six game mechanics in action: Didactic Reference, Introductory Scene, Progress Bar, Mission, Tutorial Hints, and Linear Progression. The mechanics reinforce the learning rather than distract from it.

The Six Geese come to life here as guides. Each one challenges your understanding. Each one releases a golden egg only when alignment is achieved.

This is what happens when theory meets practice. When alignment becomes playable. When learning design teaches itself.

Play the Day 6 Learning Gift: https://www.sententiagamification.com/blooms-barnyard-blooms-taxonomy-escape-room