Teacher note
Enter the teacher password to see the answers and testing tools.
How it runs
- Teams of 3 or 4 share one Chromebook. The game tells them to pass the mouse after every puzzle so everyone gets a turn to drive.
- Plan on 60 to 75 minutes (it can be split over two class periods with progress codes). Students explore 10 places on Ember Island, help 9 camp crew members, and collect 9 clues for the Map Room (Dr. Okafor gives a 10th at the start). The finale is a map logic puzzle: teams draw a safe path from Camp to the Harbor, square by square, following every clue. It pairs well with the Restless Earth unit.
- The island opens up as they go: Tariq's Hard Hat opens the Ridge Trail, Ruth's Jeep Keys open Summit Station, and Lou turns the power back on for the Map Room table.
- Skills: the three rock families (reading for key words), reading a seismograph line graph, the parts of a volcano (magma chamber, vent, crater, lava flow, ash cloud, and magma versus lava), plate boundaries (pulling apart, pushing together, sliding past), ordering and rounding 3 and 4 digit numbers and subtraction (lava temperatures), multiplication and division with remainders (when to round up), square number patterns, area and perimeter (ash cloud), powers of ten (earthquake magnitude), and reading a height map (lava flows to the lowest neighbor).
- The finale: the map shows heights, water, two bridges, the Ranger Station, a steam vent and the crater. The clues add the dangers: heights of 8 or more, the broken bridge, the ash row, the blocked trail, the lake, the vent and the squares touching it, a required stop at the Ranger Station, and no square twice. Teams can switch to Pencil to cross out danger squares first. Any path that follows every clue works (the shortest is 14 steps). A wrong path tells the team which clue it breaks, then waits 20, 40, then 60 seconds, so checking beats guessing.
- Wrong answers on the other puzzles lock that puzzle for a short wait (15 seconds, then 30, 45, 60). Hints: 3 per puzzle (the Map Room has 3 too), one every 45 seconds.
- Bonus: 11 lucky crystals are hidden in the rooms. The count prints on the award.
- Progress codes: after every puzzle the team gets a 10 letter code (like
KDHTM-7XQMP), also shown on the side. Have one student write the newest code on paper. If a browser resets or the team switches Chromebooks, they type it on the start screen and get back their team name, every solved puzzle (in any order), open areas, items, hints and time. Made-up codes do not work, and codes from the other escape rooms do not work here. - The "Left this page" counter on the side goes up every time someone switches to another tab or window. It does not stop the game. A high number can mean someone went looking for answers, for example by taking a screenshot to an AI helper, so it is worth a quick check in.
- Everything in this room (the island, the camp, the characters and the story) is made up, so it is safe to share. The science facts on the clickable spots are real. Nobody is ever hurt in the story; the volcano erupts only after everyone is safely on the ferry.
Timer
Minutes until the ferry leaves: (teams can keep playing in overtime; the award says "Solved in overtime")
Answers
- Rock Lab, Mila: Igneous: pumice, obsidian, granite. Sedimentary: sandstone, limestone, conglomerate. Metamorphic: marble, slate. The rock that floats is pumice.
- Quake Station, Tariq: 3 earthquakes (spikes at minutes 2, 5 and 7), the biggest was at minute 7, it was 8 mm tall, and 8 is 2 times the smallest quake (4 mm). Gives the Hard Hat.
- Model Hut, Rina: A magma chamber, B vent, C crater, D lava flow, E ash cloud. Melted rock that pours out on top is called lava.
- Fault Line, Jonah: 1 (pulling apart) a crack opens and new crust forms, 2 (pushing together) mountains and volcanoes push up, 3 (sliding past) plates grind and cause earthquakes. Plates move a few centimeters a year.
- Lava Field, Ayo: 1st runny lava (1,150), 2nd thick lava (850), 3rd campfire (600), 4th kitchen oven (230). 1,200, 550 degrees, 700 degrees.
- Supply Shed, Ruth: 48 bottles, 4 crates, 6 bars each with 2 left over, 4 boxes of first aid kits (3 boxes hold only 9). Gives the Jeep Keys.
- Ash Tower, Pia: 16 squares at hour 3, 36 at hour 5, perimeter 12 kilometers, 9 new squares between hours 3 and 4.
- Sensor Hut, Dmitri: 10 times, 100 times, 1,000 times, and 100 millimeters.
- Survey Post, Lou: the lava flows crater (C3) to D3, E3, E2, E1 and stops. The Fishing Village (E1) is in danger, and the lava flows into 4 squares. Turns on the Map Room.
- Map Room: one safe path (14 steps): A6, A5, B5, B4, B3, C3, C2 (Ranger Station), D2, D3, E3 (bridge), F3, F2, G2, H2, H1 (Harbor). Other paths that follow every clue also work. Unsafe squares: heights of 8 or more (D6, E6, F6, D5, E5, F5, E4), row 6 except Camp, C4 (rocks), A1 and B1 (lake), E2 (river), E1 (broken bridge), and G4 with G3, G5, F4, H4 (steam vent).