Ghost House Escape Room - Light and Sound Science Topics

Using an Escape Room to develop curriculum knowledge is an exciting activity that will inspire learners from 3rd Grade to 6th Grade.

The curriculum content of this Escape Room is linked to:

· Light (Shadows, Reflection, Filters)

· Sound (Speed, Movement, Solids, Liquids, Gases)

· Difference between Light and Sound

· Space (Vacuum, Light Travel speed from Sun to Planets)

The aim of the Escape Room is to provide jeopardy for the children to work under pressure to solve 9 clues to save them from being trapped inside a Ghost House forever.

Included in the resource once downloaded:

• Pupil Workbook
• Answer/Code Key Booklet
• Resource Booklet to run the Escape Room
• Full Instructions Booklet

Before beginning, you will need to prepare the following:

• A copy of the Pupil Workbook for each group
• A set of table activities for every group – prepared beforehand and given to each group after they have all completed each Code Key activity
• IT sources and research materials
• Ghostly Communication Script
• Completion Script

Children do not need prior knowledge of the topics above to complete this Escape Room, as the research will support the answers and each Code Key is supported with several clues. This Escape Room is ideal as a review of learning.

The activity begins by the teacher reader the Ghostly Message received. It clearly tells the children that they are trapped in the Ghost House as they were uninvited – and entered as part of a dare with their friends. The only way they can escape is to solve 9 Code Keys. If they fail, they will be trapped in the house forever.

What follows are 9 activities which the children must solve to discover the code to move onto the next activity.

Each activity focuses and builds the children’s knowledge on many aspects of Light and Sound.

The 9 activities are based on the following outcomes:

• How Light travels faster than Sound and can explain why we see things before we hear them.
• How fast light travels from the sun to Earth and other planets. Children then use this knowledge to be able to sequence the order of planets based on the speed light from the sun reaches them.
• Shadows and the vocabulary of transparent, translucent, opaque.
• Comparison of how Light and Sound travels, including introducing how Sound travels at different speeds through Solids, Liquids and Gases.
• Light Sources and Reflectors and thinking through why reflectors are good choices of protection when out at night in the dark.
• peed at which sound can travel through different objects – ordering materials based on knowledge of particles in solids, liquids and gases.
• Angle of Incidence = Angle of Reflection
• Colours of the Rainbow, developing an understanding of how we see colours of an object through individual research.
• Reviewing the 8 Code Keys and identifying what we have learnt/revised about Light and Sound.

When all 9 activities are completed, and the children have gained the correct Code Keys from each activity, the teacher can read the final communication detailing how the children have been able to escape from the Ghost House. 

Setting up the Escape Room

1. Children should be split into groups of no more than four and be placed in their own work space.

2. Access to IT and research materials should be provided to allow children to research answers to questions and review their own knowledge, as well as checking answers.

3. Each group should have a Code Key Booklet and decide on a team name

4. Read the Initial Ghost House Message to the children. Discuss what this means, and what the activity entails.

5. Hand each group a copy of Code Key 1. Agree with the children a set time to complete the problem in – this ensures that the children stay on task and maintains the Escape Room element of working under pressure.

6. At the end of the time, children should have filled in the Code Key in their booklet. The teacher can then check the accuracy of all the groups and talk through the responses the children should have.

7. Move on through the remaining challenges until all 9 have been completed.

8. For those groups who have been successful, they are then able to read the completed statement where they find out if they have escaped the Ghost House!

There are other ways of running Escape Room activities, for example, each activity could be set up on 8 tables (with the 9th Challenge the groups all doing at the same time) and the children then move from table to table completing the activity. This would reduce the need for as many resources, and access to non-fiction sources and Internet Resources could then be targeted at specific Challenges.

The Escape Room should last for 2 hours.

We hope that your children enjoy this Escape Room.

Best wishes

INSPIReducation