Hillhurst Elementary - Week 1
Today we concluded the first week of our Spring sessions at Hillhurst Elementary.
I (Eric) worked with two Grade 5 classes to develop a Space-themed escape room. When we arrived on the first day, we didn’t know what theme we would go with. The class was using a fictional narrative of space travel to solidify learnings in their Humanities class and so we spring-boarded off that. We also recognized that the given space in the school was quite small and so we utilized a backpack, hallway and turned it into a decompression chamber in a spaceship.
The students were highly engaged throughout the creation process!
With smaller class sizes, we had to be careful how much we bit off (gotta be able to chew!) We also trimmed down the teams to strictly Build, Decor and Puzzle. This allowed us to focus.
This relatively small group of students managed to build 3 rooms: living quarters, an escape pod, and the decompression chamber in the hallway. Bravo!
We also created another overhead structure using cardboard, which had a really great effect.
As it turns out, alien life wasn’t what humanity found in space after all! It was an enemy of their own creation. Artificial Intelligence! WALTER went rogue and “cracked” the control panel to their escape pod. Meanwhile, the ship is hurtling toward a black hole. Your mission (your very difficult mission) was to unlock the language decoder, unlock the key to the escape pod, and use the two control panel parts (with magnetic activation) to blast off in your escape pod to safety. Only one group made it all the way home! WALTER is tricky one…
And it made an impression during showcase! 12 groups came through, plus 3 groups of parents. And the puzzles proved to be VERY tricky. We steadily made them easier throughout the day to accommodate the short escape time of only 10 minutes. One of my favourite puzzles required the player to look through a telescope and see constellations, counting the number of stars in each one.
It was great to see so many students really come alive and excel. Some of them in particular surprised me with their genius and tenacity. One student endeavoured to make a cardboard key that had to be inserted in one spot and slid down to another spot to activate the magnetic reed switch. I honestly doubted it could be done and almost discouraged him, but he kept on persisting and eventually succeeded. I was so impressed by his critical thinking skills on display in a very kinesthetic and real-world fashion.
Another quote that stood out to me was when the Grade 5s were watching other students escape from the room they created, he said, “I love see ing people cooperate!” It was an honest reflection that bubbled up spontaneously and it captures one of the core reasons we do what we do.
Not only did other classes have to cooperate to solve the escape room, but the Grade 5s had to work together and cooperate and problem solve all week long in order to complete the room.
And they did! I’m very proud of them and look forward to seeing them when we return for some of the other grades later this Sping.
See you later Hillhurst!