Well... Earlier in the month I posted about my beginnings of an Escape Room with an Escape Box! Within that I posted about the systems mapping activity that I used with it that was inspired by a Twitter Post by @AnkerMath. Here I will post a detailed explanation with editable files for you to use with your school maps.
Thanks Ms. Anker!!!
I emailed and received a map of the school that we give our parents and guests so it a nice clean copy.
It was a PDF so I used the Snipping Tool on my computer. This is the GREATEST COMPUTER TOOL EVER! If you are not familiar with it, do a search on your windows computer and pin it to your desktop toolbar. It's Icon looks like this:
I 'snipped' different parts of the map and made 7 different maps to place a coordinate plane over. You could do just one map of the whole school but I wanted to make their points in general directions and I wanted them all different so they could not just copy. I pasted the map in a word document. **You want to layer it behind the text**
I also created a table to paste over it for the coordinate grid. These files are in word and available here. You will want to download the Austies Bost Envelopes Font here so that you do not have to change any formatting in word. I included the PDF so you can see what mine looked like. They are both vertical and horizontal so you can make it fit you map as desired.
Then I found locations I could use that were accessible but not easily seen from the long hallway... didn't want them just seeing it from afar. I did two systems problems on each map. I did them already in y=mx+b as well. You can adjust difficulty and do standard form of course but I wanted all kids to be able to do it. At first, I thought it would only be like a warm-up and then we'd do notes. TIME ALERT: I know everything always takes longer than planned but this took the WHOLE PERIOD! Just an FYI.
Every X was the same color too and just showed the X. But of course, they could just go to any X right? No WAY~!! So every X had the flip answer to make sure they found the correct one.
Once they found their X, they had to take pictures and post them on Twitter or Instagram tagging the class account. I did not allow SnapChat. They could do themselves or just the maps and spots. This is all specific in their instructions.
I demonstrated my expectations after they all received their maps. I made them complete their maps before they left my class.
Here- I'd like to take a moment of this blog post to discuss the social media expectation. The day before the treasure hunt I posted for the class that they needed a Twitter or Instagram to complete this activity. This led to some of the best real life discussions I've ever had with students. I explained our district mission statement and core values and felt that the social media fit right in with this. We discussed the expectation of privacy and how their accounts could influence their futures so if they had something on there they didn't want me to see..... that was probably something they wouldn't want a potential employer to see. It was very well discussed among my students throughout the day. WOW! I'll leave it there.
Here are some of their posts:
It was great! After this, they them came back to me and received a hint card with a numeral that was part of a 3 number combination bike lock like below. I got these at Dollar Tree.
The 7th team received a hint card that told them what place a number was in. I adjusted how I gave out the cards accordingly for how many groups I sent out. They were weaved through my previously posted 'Escape Box' Treasure Chest. The green baskets were also purchased at Dollar Tree and the zip ties from the 99 cent Only store which is NOT $.99 ONLY anymore I might add!
The back of the chest is connected with zip ties so they HAD to undo both bike locks to flip it open. (Lesson previously learned!)
Once inside, they had a code to find out the final treasure lock. I put it under the tool box (student suggestion) so they could not slip it out of the green treasure box. Both the box and lock were purchased at Dollar Tree. I laminated the combination sheet so they could write on it with expo markers and folded it in half.
Inside the treasure box I put candy and school stuff like post-its, pencils and pens. The kids liked even the school supplies!
This entire class was working the locks!
It was exhausting but great! The kids actually thanked me!! Thanked me for a learning experience!! Several questioned the time I put into it (as if they had an appreciation of that!!! How often does something like that happen?!?!). That makes every minute and dollar worth it. Everyone seemed to be working hard and it accommodated all levels. I did this after we did notes over graphing and an assignment.
In summary: I LOVED the results. The kids loved the results. The kids did work. The kids had an experience. And the biggest take-away....
If you loosen your corset too much.... it doesn't hold stuff right!
Thank you,
Lisa
