Puzzles and clues that enhance that math escape room experience
Potentially you have always wanted to create a math escape room for your students, but didn’t know where to start or how to incorporate the right type of puzzles and clues for your diy math escape. Well, you’re in luck as I break down my five favorite math escape room ideas for your next math based escape room. My top five creative ways to enhance any math escape room activity include: utilizing clever puns, distorting text with mirrors, writing information in upside down messages, using hidden font and meaningful puzzles. For more information on each of these ideas, see the post below!
1. Use more Puns
When you are coming up with clues for your escape room math riddles, you don’t always want to simply give away all the information. The average escape room clue can be improved by adding puns. Think of some of the words we use in mathematics. Many times they are similar to other words we often use in our everyday language. Even though there may be a difference in the spelling, that doesn’t mean you can’t use them to enhance your clues. If I feel a puzzle in one of my escape room challenges needs enhanced in some way, I come at it at a slightly different angle to see if I can add any puns and divide the clue into two parts. In one part of the clue I like to provide the numbers without any operations or sign of what to do. Alongside this clue, I provide written information that contains various puns informing the students what to do with the numbers. Continue reading to see what I mean.
How to create puns for a math escape room
To start creating puns that you can use in your escape room, think about all the mathematic vocabulary that relates to the topic of the escape room. Write the words and variations of those words down on paper. For example, the word “triangle” can be split into “try” and “angle” or the word ‘sign” can be used to mean “sine” because when said out loud, they sound the same. Then, while you are writing your information for the clues, strategically use those words in your paragraph. At times it may feel forced, but that happens less than you would think.
The best part about using puns is sometimes students don’t even notice. With a little practice, it becomes a lot easier. Did you catch all fourteen math puns I used in the last two paragraphs? Below is an example from my Fractions Escape Room and two more from my Data and Statistics Escape room.
Did you catch all of my puns?
“When you are coming up with clues for your escape room math riddles, you don’t always want to simply give away all the information. The average escape room clue can be improved by adding puns. Think of some of the words we use in mathematics. Many times they are similar to other words we often use in our everyday language. Even though there may be a difference in the spelling, that doesn’t mean you can’t use them to enhance your clues. If I feel a puzzle in one of my escape room challenges needs enhanced in some way, I come at it at a slightly different angle to see if I can add any puns and divide the clue into two parts. In one part of the clue I like to provide the numbers without any operations or sign of what to do. Alongside this clue, I provide written information that contains various puns informing the students what to do with the numbers. Continue reading to see what I mean. “
“At times it may feel forced, but that happens less than you would think.”
2. Smoke and mirrors, well, just mirrors
Do you ever think about letters or numbers that appear the same in the mirror? For example, the letters A, H, I, M, O, U, V, W, X and Y all appear the same in a mirror. Additionally, the numbers 1, 8 and 0 are all reflected back the same way as they appear normally. Keeping these letters in mind, you can easily create clues for your escape room that are not as they appear. Additionally, when using the right font, you could even use the numbers 2 and 5. All of a sudden, a problem that looked like 12 + 81 is actually 18 + 21. Hiding a mirror in a previous clue or using a pun to show that the clue is in mirror image is a great way to incorporate this idea.
In my Data and Statistics Escape Room I include a mirror image of numbers with the statement “If only you could see exactly what I see, you would know what I mean.” In this particular clue, the word mean also refers to the average.
3. Upside down letters and numbers
Another trick to use for any escape room using math, similar to using hidden images within a mirror, you can strategically write letters and numbers that mean something completely different when you look at them upside down. Depending on the type of font used, the letters H, N, S, X and Z look the same upside down. Furthermore, the letters M and W can be switched when placed upside down.
As for numbers, you can play tricks on your potential escapees by using the numbers 0, 1, 6, 8 and 9. The nine looks like a six and visa-versa; whereas, the other numbers look the same upside down. However, a two or three-digit number gets a complete transformation. The number 189 could actually be the number 681. For my Geometry Escape Room, I used this idea with the area of one of my shapes. Another clue reveals that this image is upside down.
4. Hidden messages and text
Another great way to incorporate better puzzles into your math escape challenge is through the use of hidden text or invisible ink. Invisible ink is easy to add to any puzzle with the invisible ink pens. Additionally, you can hide text underneath dry erase messages. For example, in my Fractions Escape Room, the word problems are missing some of the numbers.
One of the clues the students get early on states “When all hope is erased, help is on the way.” The students have a laminated clue that has “ALL HOPE” written on it that when erased reveals “911…40”. The number 40 goes with the word problem that is referring to the police. Certain letters that have the same shape are easy to hide behind similar letters. For your escape room puzzle, try hiding the number 4 behind the letter H, place a 3 behind the letter B or hide the number 1 behind a variety of letters.
5. Puzzles that require students to understand the math, not just place together random pieces
Any escape room I have attempted had some sort of puzzle with pieces that needed placed together to reveal a clue. Puzzles are a great component to add to your math escape challenges; however, I recommend including puzzles that require students to know the math. My Integer Escape Room has two puzzles. One of which has pieces that form a code for one of the digital locks. This puzzle involves students finding the opposite and absolute values of numbers to solve the puzzle. The other puzzle is used to get students thinking critically. Basically, what I am suggesting is to have a purpose for your puzzle. Don’t simply place math problems on a piece of paper, cut them out and call it a puzzle. Provide a purpose.
Another great example of this is my box plot puzzle from my Data and Statistics Escape Room. Students must use a set of data in order to successfully put the pieces together. Once solved, the puzzle is used to answer a series of questions about the graph. A similar idea could easily be applied to many graphs for your next escape room such as box plots, line plots (click here for a free activity), ordered pairs, bar graphs, or histograms.
What are you waiting for? Start creating your math escape room today!
I hope these tips and tricks are useful in creating your next math escape room. Don’t forget to make your experience feel more like an actual escape room by including escape room signs for the students to hold up once time runs out. If you’re interested in making your escape rooms more engaging, view these three ways to make your escape room feel more like the real deal. Or if you aren’t convinced in the educational value of escape rooms, read the five lessons my students learned from a 6th grade math escape room.
