Senior School Students Encouraged to Break Out
Members of the Sewickley Academy community were encouraged to break out from an escape room designed and operated by Senior School students.
Earlier in the school year, Senior School Technology Coordinator, Mrs. Cristy McCloskey, along with nine students – all juniors – in her “Interactive Design and Development” class, played Escape Room Pittsburgh’s Carnegie’s Millions game and were inspired to take on the challenge to design, build, and run their own room. The SA escape room opened on April 26 and students, faculty, and staff in groups of four or less could try to escape from the room. The escape room welcomed its last group Monday, June 5, and all-in-all 42 teams tried to escape with only 16 groups succeeding at a 38.1% escape rate.
The “Interactive Design and Development” class is a project–based class where students learn the C# programming language, 3-D design, soldering, and work with circuit boards such as the Makey Makey and Arduino. These circuit boards can be used to learn computer programming. Mrs. McCloskey said, “The Makey Makey can be wired and programmed to make objects act as a keyboard.” Students implemented the Makey Makey technology last year when they created a piano to release a riddle to escape room participants. They changed things up a little this year by adding a magnetic lock to a secret door, and wired a switch to enable the door to automatically open once a key was gathered from entering a combination into a keypad hidden in a desk drawer.
This year’s escape room was themed “Escape from Alcatraz.” Prior to entering the darkened escape room, participants were read a story, asked to impersonate prisoners trying to “Escape from Alcatraz,” and were locked on the island. Once on the island, locked in a prison-like cell, the countdown clock was set and the convicts only had 60 minutes to escape from a series of four rooms. The game required teams to use clues and artifacts, including a black light, within the spaces to access keys and codes to open locks and doors.
Students took approximately two and a half months to complete it, from idea to finalized room. Mrs. McCloskey said, “We also had several groups go through the room as "testers" so we could make some changes, repairs, etc. before officially opening. The room seems just as challenging as last year, having a different look and feel, and it’s been a big hit once again!”
The class transformed a former language lab next to their computer lab into the escape room from scratch by gathering materials from old stage sets, maintenance supplies, and a couple of trips to a home improvement store. In addition to programming, students’ critical thinking and storytelling skills were put to the test in this engaging class project.
This is the second year Sewickley Academy students operated an escape room on campus giving members of the community an opportunity to enhance their group dynamics, problem solving, and communication skills in an effort to “Escape from Alcatraz.”
Checkout photos from the escape room on our Facebook page.
