Students plan their escape
As part of their iPeriod time at Darlington Upper School, 12 students have developed an escape room.
‘It’s fun to see who gets it.’ Hillary Tunnell, Darlington student
Once the door closes behind them and the clock begins to tick down from 30 minutes, there’s only one way to escape, solve five clues and find the missing digit of a phone number.
If the correct digit is found before the deadline, a voice on the other line will congratulate them on their graduation. If not, it’s back to school for a repeat of 12th grade.
These are the stakes of Escape Darlington, the brainchild of 12 upper school students, who have converted a room in the campus learning center into an escape room as part of an iPeriod project.
Built into the schedule of upper school students, iPeriod is a time for them to explore a particular interest or curiosity and develop it into a project or activity with the help of an advisor. Students have two different iPeriod projects for seven weeks. They spend 50 minutes a day in iPeriod for four days, alternating between the projects each day.
The idea for an escape room came from students visiting one in Chattanooga and thinking it would be fun to make their own, said student Hillary Tunnell. Learning specialist Justin Bruce was sought out as a sponsor for the project.
The first five weeks were spent developing the tasks for completing the escape room. The five clues relate to five academic subjects — English, science, mathematics, history and language. Analyzing a Robert Frost poem, completing a paper skeletons “dab” dance move, and charting the points of students’ trips abroad were all pieces to the overall puzzle.
Solving each clue for four of the subjects yields three numbers that unlock the corresponding padlocks to the main cabinet. Completing the math problem — drawing lines on a graph based in coordinate geometry — correctly leads to the directional combination for a padlock.
Bruce said students knew they wanted to have a 30-minute deadline. So they had to break down how long it would take to solve each clue by working back from 30 minutes, he added.
Groups of students have been signing up to participate, and while they do, Bruce and his student creators observe them from outside, peering in through windows. He communicates to the inside through walkietalkies, providing only three hints, but there are other assisting messages posted inside the escape room — such as “sometimes letters equal numbers.”
It’s a bit of a social experiment, looking into how students communicate, organize themselves and collaborate, Bruce said. The pressure gets to some, as finger pointing and the blame game erupt.
One surprise to Bruce has been seeing kids who are typically quiet and stick to themselves begin to exude natural leadership in taking control.
“It’s fun to see who gets it,” said Tunnell.
Student Abby Sklar said some bragging rights come from those who can get out, and it’s interesting to see the kids who are so full of confidence going in not be able to finish in time.
When Thursday afternoon’s group eventually found the missing digit and called, already having hit the half-hour mark, Bruce’s voice came over a student’s cellphone speaker and said, “Sorry, we had graduation last week.”