[ISLMA-Share] 'escape room' library lesson

[Email list for the Illinois School Library Media Association]

I offered the chance to "Beat the Box" during Teen Read Week in my high
school library. Students coming to the Library Media Center during their
25-minute study hall periods organized themselves into teams to work on 1
of 4 Breakout EDU boxes I assembled using open-source shopping lists on
Amazon. I used Global Game 1
<https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0ByhbVQDq9EkUb01TNkg5Y2Jqd3c?usp=sharing>on
www.breakoutedu.com and asked students to solve 6 puzzles to open 6 locks.

The puzzles had an international flair, as they were solicited by Breakout
EDU community for Global Read Aloud Day:

   - word search with 10 Pokemon characters. Instructions in Spanish.
   Remaining letters spelled 4-digit number in Spanish
   - 5 letter word collected from 5 questions answered using a map of
   Canadian provinces, then translated from French to English
   - telephone area code map of US used to find 3-digit number based on 6
   city names all in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
   - invisible ink on ransom note prompted students to find keys hidden
   near clock in LMC
   - 6 newspaper stories had to be put in chronological order, then
   geographic order using a map of Australia. Cardinal directions from one
   city to another opened a directional lock

My observations:

   - teams of 4+ were able to open all locks in 25 minutes with some
   liberal clues, especially for the directional lock, while teams of 2 did
   not finish in time
   - students really hoped for a prize in the box, and my promise of "I'll
   take a picture of your team holding the We Beat the Box sign" was a poor
   substitute for those who wanted candy, etc. I definitely miscalculated
   there!
   - no teams shared puzzle solutions with their friends. Every team was
   100% fresh

We had a great time with this activity! I concur with other comments that
the set-up is very time consuming. I was pleased to use the puzzles created
by others, and still my set-up time was significant.



*~Monica Tolva*
*Library media specialist*
*Google Educator*
*Vernon Hills High School*
*847-932-2039 <847-932-2039>*
*monica.tolva at d128.org <monica.tolva at d128.org>*

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