Tilley, Tilley, Tilley!
It is always exciting to build an escape room with a school, and even more exciting when we have the opportunity to build three at a time! This week, at Tilley School, students put their best efforts forward to masterfully construct escape rooms that were themed around environmental issues that affect the community of Tilley. This was made possible by a school-wide collaboration and support from the community.
Students in grade 3 and 4 focused on the air pollution that affects Tilley. Our story stars the dastardly Dr. Smog and his attempts to control the town with three types of pollution. Train exhaust, car exhaust, and grassfires plague the residents of Tilley, and you must eliminate these types of pollution by solving puzzles and activating an air purifier! This room featured numerous works of art that depicted scenes from their town, as well as the machinations of the villainous Dr. Smog. The grade 3 and 4 students invented a series of puzzles featuring hidden writing revealed by ultra-violet light, a clever jigsaw, and a stacker-style puzzle that was solved in multiple parts! After you crack the codes, you are led to a battery, which was used to activate the air purifier. Once Dr. Smog had been stopped, the day was saved!
Grade 5 and 6 students created a convincing environment that highlighted Alberta’s most famous natural resource: oil. Entering the room, you are surrounded by nearly life-size trees that create an ominous scene – an oil pumpjack has gone haywire! Your goal is to deactivate the pumpjack so that it can be repaired, maintaining the safety of Alberta’s natural resources. This room was no walk in the park, as cryptic codes could be found on oil barrels and confusing switch puzzles hampered your progress. After an overlay unveiled the correct switches to power, you then encounter a confusing cypher. Once the cypher was solved, you were able to deactivate the pumpjack and restore order.
The middle school students at Tilley spent the week assembling an escape room that represented alternative energy in Alberta. Both wind and solar energy inspired the structures and puzzles in the room. Students were able to build windmills that produced a lifelike recreation of a wind farm in peril. In this room, your goal was to reactivate your family’s wind farm so that you could survive deadly temperatures below -40C! The middle school students implemented creative puzzles that included perspective puzzles, clocks, and button sequences. The walls of this escape room boasted intricate landscape paintings that immersed the participants in an enthralling escape room.
After a busy week, the Tilley students received guests from the community that included students from a neighboring school! It was a productive and crazy week, but the outcome was unforgettable.