Inspired by the students’ in-class reading and developed in consultation with their teacher, this pop-up escape room transformed curriculum concepts into a hands-on, story-driven puzzle experience. Students worked in teams with assigned roles, rotating from station to station to solve collaborative challenges that blended close reading, deduction, and playful discovery.

The result was an immersive classroom event designed not just to entertain, but to make the material feel active, social, and memorable — the kind of lesson that earns actual excitement instead of the usual “is this on the test?” energy.

Using geometry concepts from students’ actual in-class curriculum, teams directed a laser beam at the proper angles to solve a puzzle and advance the story in their escape game experience.

With one partner blindfolded and another unable to move, students had to find creative ways to communicate effectively and work toward a puzzle solution.

I developed puzzles based on students’ actual curriculum (in partnership with their teacher) with the goals of reinforcing their classroom learning and applying what they know, while also learning a new skill — in this case, learning how to apply the “Book Cipher” decoding strategy.

Students participated in a culminating activity, bringing clues gathered during the escape room event into a final, climactic game that had all student groups working together toward a collaborative puzzle solution.