I’m writing about ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, and I’m up to Sunday afternoon. After a publisher lunch (one of the yummiest meals I’ve ever eaten!), I went to a short film called “A Chance to Dress” about a Harvard professor who cross dresses, and has since he was a child. He’s not transgender and sees himself as too tall to pass for female anyway. But he often dresses as a woman and takes delight in that. His wife says he’s a more pleasant, softer person when he doesn’t go too long without it.<\/p>\n
Then I went to a more practical session — “Escape the Library: Escape Room Design Workshop,” presented by Sarah Mulhausen and Adam Stockley from Tulsa City-County Library. Here are my notes:<\/p>\n
[I’ve done several escape rooms using a lock box and ideas from Breakout EDU. But Breakout EDU has switched to a subscription service, and most of their programs are really more suited to a classroom setting. So I’ve been thinking about creating my own. Any ideas will be helpful. This program was so crowded, I had to sit in the back on the floor.]<\/p>\n
First definitions: An Escape Room is a real life game that integrates puzzles with physical challenges. There’s usually a theme that intertwines with the clues.<\/p>\n
Teamwork is essential. This is a STEM program, using logical, lateral, and spatial thinking.<\/p>\n
These programs have had by far the highest turnout for teen programs at their branch.<\/p>\n
How to build an Escape Room?<\/p>\n
1) Choose a theme.<\/p>\n
Use what you love. The more knowledgeable you are, the better.<\/p>\n
Start listing ideas. “It would be cool if…” Have 10 to 20 ideas.<\/p>\n
Examples from their Harry Potter room: Using a pensieve, making a potion, getting sorted into houses.<\/p>\n
2) Describe what’s in your room.<\/p>\n
How should it look? Example: Stone walls, pensieve, potions book…<\/p>\n
3) Create a story<\/p>\n
Make it creative and consistent with the theme. Be urgent and interesting, with a clear and logical ending that makes the winners feel triumphant.<\/p>\n
4) Make a flow chart.<\/p>\n
This is where you really build your room. Conceptualize the flow of the room. She writes on different colored index cards to make a flow chart.<\/p>\n
Different colors for: Object – Challenge – Reward<\/p>\n
In a linear room, one clue leads to another. Nonlinear rooms have multiple starting places.<\/p>\n
[Note: They recommend a linear room to start, but the rooms I have done with Breakout EDU have all been nonlinear. The good thing about that is that there are no bottlenecks.]<\/p>\n
5) Make a puzzle for every challenge.<\/p>\n
Write short descriptions of every challenge on cards.<\/p>\n
Make puzzles contingent on being in the room, not on prior knowledge.<\/p>\n
If you’ve got a linear room, start with an easy puzzle.<\/p>\n
Examples: Jigsaw puzzles with clues on the back, things in the room, locks, computer lock, hidden objects, cyphers, QR codes, weird keys… Google it!<\/p>\n
6) Build and test the room.<\/p>\n
Change what you need to change and test it again. Give yourself PLENTY of time.<\/p>\n
Extras: Costumes, actors, decorations, food. The more you do, the more immersive.<\/p>\n
Budget: Use the resources available to you. (They use funding from their Friends.) Recycle and reuse, ask friends…<\/p>\n
Age limits and group sizes: Stick to it! The younger you go, the more concepts you lose. The bigger the group, the fewer people feel they’ve participated. They do a few times in one day, with a good hour in between sessions.<\/p>\n
Advice: Make backups of anything that could disappear or get broken. Some examples they did: Mario room — boxes with tissue paper bottoms – coins with clues fell out. I’m writing about ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, and I’m up to Sunday afternoon. After a publisher lunch (one of the yummiest meals I’ve ever eaten!), I went to a short film called “A Chance to Dress” about a Harvard professor who cross dresses, and has since he was a child. He’s not transgender […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[207,419],"tags":[394],"class_list":["post-35045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conference-corner","category-conf-corner","tag-alaac18"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35045"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42748,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35045\/revisions\/42748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nGive plenty of time to reset the room between sessions.
\nMake a reset list for the room.
\nStreamline the room to only what’s needed for the game.
\nDon’t wait until the last minute. Allow two months minimum to figure out a room.
\nDo you need to be in the room? (With younger kids, Yes!)
\nIf you’re in the room, should you offer help?
\nTry to design the room to be hands-free for you.
\nHave a Session Zero — explanation and instructions before<\/em> they enter the room.<\/p>\n
\nPensieve – a video under the bowl and fog on top.
\nPotions – Cabbage water turns purple – add acid or alkaline to change color. “Graded” potion with the correct color gets a clue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"