So I've been playing with the idea of doing an Escape Room in my math class for a while. Just researching it is overwhelming! There are so many things and I need to consider the objectives that make it viable in the high school math classroom. Of course, the optimal material would be solving equations and we are far past that at this point. I decided to start gathering the materials and slowly start working on the logististics. First, I Googled and Pinterested. Then I dollar stored!!
At Dollar Tree I found combination bike lock chains which I decided to put to use with something 'mathy'. Then the problem came, where to start?!?!? I don't even know what an Escape Room is! Ugh... maybe I should have thought this out a little more... but no, not me...it's full steam ahead! I decided to incorporate an 'Escape Box' into my class first. I used some of the supplies above and mysteriously Tweeted this:
https://twitter.com/CBHSRichMath/status/929793441864863745
Well.... that's it right?!?! I kind of put the horse out in front of this race while I'm still hanging on the barn fence trying to figure out how to ride. I decided to work it in to an already planned activity after Thanksgiving Break. So I came in to class Monday morning and placed this at the front of the room. 2nd period.....
'What's that for?'
'What's in that?'
'Is it Star Wars?'
'Is it stickers?'
To which I replied, 'you will have to wait and find out'. So now, I've got their attention, time to figure out how to ride the horse!
I saw from Sarah Carter's
Monday Must Reads post about a mapping activity from
Mrs. Anker last week and I had already developed it for my class for post break!
Here is mine! I took 7 different versions of the school map and they will need to map the two systems of linear equations on each map and find the 'Spots' in the school. I've included my assignment
here. You will need the Austie Bost Envelope font which you can download for
free here if you don't want to change the fonts around to print. Just change my pictures for your school maps and adjust the points.
So how is this leading to the Escape Room? Well, at the end of the treasure hunt they need a treasure box right? And now I know how to use the teaser 'Escape Box'! There are 7 maps, as each group/pair comes back, they will receive a scratch off with Lock A or B and a number in the combination. There are 2 3-digit bike locks, so what does map 7 get? They will get a scratch off telling them the first number of the combination for one lock. Not super tricky or 'escapy' but I thought a nice intro to the concept. I also decided to introduce some codes in as after all the excitement of getting everything set up and worked out, I remembered there was a combination lock on the box inside. I so often get ahead of myself that it no longer phases me having to rethink or redo things several times!
I decided to use the Mason cipher I found on the following blog post:
https://birthdayblueprint.blogspot.com/2011/05/spy-party.html?spref=tw. She even provides you with the font to download. After their test this week, I am giving them all a quick puzzle with no guidance to see if they can figure out the code. They say things like 'We are Clear Brook!' or 'Mrs. R rocks math!' I did them all in lower case font as it is just for interpretation of the symbols and I did not want anything too discouraging. I also made them all different as I want them to think about it and not just copy. I had to figure it out too as I had no idea!
I felt this was a nice comfortable way to work in the beginnings of an Escape Room as I feel it will take some time to develop the whole thing out. I'll let you know how it goes!
I have a few things ready and all the boxes prepped (way more work than I thought too) to start developing more intensive 'escapes'.
I put smaller boxes in the locked baskets so they had to open all the locks before getting the items from inside.
Probably the most challenging was finding a cipher wheel I wanted to use and could figure out ;-)
Thanks!
Lisa
