First a field trip... Then a residency
Our residency at Manachaban was a special one for Co-Founder Paul Harvey. Two and a half years ago in the spring of 2017, Manachaban was the first school to ever book a Mobile Escape program.
At that time, the residency program did not even exist - we were only running our in-school field trips where each class gets a total of about two hours to try out our escape rooms.
The grade 6 teachers and students had a great experience and brought us back again in the spring of 2018 and 2019.
This year was a little different though - the teachers wanted more than just the field trip. Manachaban wanted to try out the one week residency, where the students not only had a chance to solve our escape rooms, but they got to spend the rest week creating their own escape rooms.
It’s time to catch a thief! Students built two thrilling escape rooms that told an interactive story about a bank robbery. Over the course of a week, the kids at Manachaban created experiences that utilized evidence and investigation.
The French classes designed a room inside a bank complete with a vault, safety deposit boxes, and a huge safe! By following a series of cleverly implemented clues, community members were able to determine which of the six possible suspects stole a large sum of money from the bank – but this was no simple task! The escape room featured several red herrings and challenged the participants to use various pieces of evidence to determine which suspect was the thief.
By placing the correct piece of evidence on the investigation board, the criminal was revealed!
English classes assembled a room that took advantage of the spooky vibes during Halloween (as our showcase was the day after) and put guests in a haunted house-style room! The objective was to find where the gold and money was stashed from the bank heist of the other escape room. From the eerie décor and old-fashioned photographs, the students created an exciting experience that required a keen eye and iron-clad determination. A live actor inside a safe revealed a hint and puzzle solution once the correct combination was determined. After solving exciting puzzles that included the use of a black light, cryptic cyphers, and mind boggling riddles you’ll find the hidden stash of gold in a locked box!