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The Purpose

It is great if the purpose falls in line with the topic your students are learning, but it does not have to. The questions and puzzles which they solve will be full of content.

Maybe your students are finding a lost treasure hidden away by a made up (or historical) character. Maybe they are searching for an endangered species baby animal, separated from its mother.

They might be finding the destruct sequence for Artificial Intelligence trying to take over the classroom, or the cure for a super virus. Maybe they are racing to beat the bad guys to find the power amulet that will rule the world!

Having a background story makes things more interesting, but is not necessary. The goal can be just to get to the end and complete all of the puzzles.

It is always fun to find and recover something tangible at the end of the Escape Room. A hidden ‘treasure’ can be a bit of candy, or a coupon for a few points of extra credit.

Students can find a photograph of that baby lost animal, or a plastic jewel. The end could simply be a card that says ‘congratulations – you got a 100% – great job!”.

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The Clues

The solution for each clue must be a short word (or series of random letters) or sequence of numbers. These words or numbers will open the ‘locks’ that you have set up, which then leads students to the next lock.

The clues are your content – whatever you want your students to be learning, reviewing, or practicing. This is where we take that old, tired worksheet and turn it into something amazing!

Find a worksheet with multiple choice questions, true false questions, matching, diagrams, and/or fill in the blank. On the worksheet, group the questions into sets of four to five questions each.

Each question set becomes a clue which must be deciphered by your students to get a key code, which will open a ‘lock’.

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Clue Response Types:

ACDEF (after completing five multiple choice questions)

TFF (after completing True/False Questions)

Fill in the blank Lock Key: (students find the term and the highlighted letters are the code)

Math questions are super simple to use for an Escape Room in the classroom. The answer to a single difficult question may be the key code.

y=2x + 5

Use a diagram to complete the code:

***The only question type that can not be used to make a key code is an open-ended question

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Create the first Clue:

Name your adventure - this is called “Find the Lost Loot”
Title is Clue#1 and tells students what to do
Mark as Short Answer
Description is important so they know how to properly format the code
Validate with TEXT or NUMBERS (this is text, the correct code is a series of answers to multiple choice questions)
If incorrect code: type a message to your students (try to relate to your theme)

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Add a message and image to each additional clue:

Start each section with a “Congrats” message
Enter an image (unlocked code, meme, gif, etc.) to add interest
Then ask Clue #2 (don’t forget the description & data validation
Repeat until they reach the end of the hunt.

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Use Digital Locks, Memes, or related Pics during the activity!

IDEA: It is always fun to find and recover something tangible at the end of the Escape Room. A hidden ‘treasure’ can be a bit of candy, or a coupon for a few points of extra credit.

Students can find a photograph of that baby lost animal, or a plastic jewel. The end could simply be a card that says ‘congratulations – you got a 100% – great job!”.

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Extending the Learning

Add sections between locks that extend or enhance the Escape Room experience.

For example,

Throw in extra content questions. These can be your short answer questions that can not be used for key codes. Students do not need to get them right to move on, but it will give you some data about how well they are learning, or remembering.
Reflection questions or opinion questions work well for this too.
Maybe add something completely different! A challenge! Solve a riddle. Decode a cipher.
Ask another student a question (What is your favorite ice cream flavor?) and record the answer in the Google Form.
Instruct them to do something silly (or content-related) and take a picture of it!

For them to upload a picture to the Google Form, add a question and choose ‘file upload’ as the question format.

**DON'T START FROM SCRATCH** You can find escape rooms already created and ready to share based on the content you are looking for - just Google it! Or go to TPT!!!