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 in and around the temple, help 9 crew members, and collect 9 clues about the Wheel Door (Dr. Fern gives a 10th at the start). The finale is a logic and rotation puzzle: they use the clues to work out a 4 symbol code, then roll four linked stone wheels until the code shows.
- The temple, the Golden Sloth, Mossbeard the guardian sloth and all the characters are made up. The rainforest and animal facts are real.
- The map opens up as they go: Tomas at the Rope Bridge gives a Torch that opens the Temple Halls, Dr. Bea gives a Climbing Rope that opens the Deep Temple, and Kofi moves the sliding stone in front of the Wheel Door.
- Skills: the four layers of the rainforest (reading for key words), fractions of a group, balance scale reasoning (finding unknown weights), multiples of 6 and divisibility patterns, animal camouflage (where and why animals hide), picture graphs with a scale of 4, telling time and elapsed time, area and perimeter (including an L shape), number puzzles with symbols (an early algebra idea), and logic (a deduction puzzle with 8 clues).
- The finale: two clues say which symbols are NOT in the code, and six clues tell where the others go. No single clue gives a wheel away, so teams must combine them, and every clue is needed. The Wheel Notes grid (on the side and in the finale) lets teams mark X or a check for each symbol and wheel. Kofi's clue explains that the wheels are joined: rolling a wheel also rolls the wheel on its right one step, so teams have to plan the order they set them. A wrong try makes them wait 20, 40, then 60 seconds, so reasoning 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 wheels have 3 too), one every 45 seconds.
- Bonus: 11 gold leaves 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 after 3 wrong tries the box makes them wait 20 seconds. Typing their own code again on the same computer keeps any wait that is still running, so reloading the page cannot skip a wrong answer wait. A code always brings its own team name, and that name prints on the award. - 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 temple, the characters and the story) is original, so it is safe to share.
Timer
Minutes until the festival starts: (teams can keep playing in overtime; the award says "Solved in overtime")
Answers
- Canopy Lookout, Tala: emergent layer: kapok tree, harpy eagle. Canopy: sloth, toucan. Understory: blue morpho butterfly, red eyed tree frog. Forest floor: leafcutter ants, jaguar.
- Camp Kitchen, Lani: 4 mangoes, 6 bananas, 2/6 of the papaya, 8 chunks, and 1/2 of 10 is more (5 compared to 4).
- Rope Bridge, Tomas: lantern 5 lb, water jug 15 lb, tent 30 lb, rope 25 lb. The safe load is Tent + Water jug + Lantern (50 lb). The other loads are all 55 lb. Gives the Torch.
- Stone River, Sami: the only path of multiples of 6, from left to right: 66, 18, 12, 60, 60, 66, 24, 36, 12, 54, 72, 12 (start in the middle row at the left bank, go down to the bottom row, then up and across, and finish in the second row from the top at the right bank). Stones 48, 66 and 24 elsewhere are also multiples of 6, but they do not connect, so picking them as extras is not counted wrong.
- Hidden Garden, Juniper: sloth, A mossy branch, hides from hunters. Leaf tailed gecko, B tree bark, hides from hunters. Orchid mantis, E pink flowers, hides to catch food. Stick insect, D twigs, hides from hunters. Glass frog, F green leaf, hides from hunters. Gaboon viper, C dead leaves, hides to catch food.
- Bat Cave, Dr. Bea: Thursday 22, Tuesday had 18, Friday had 12 more than Monday, 84 in all (12, 18, 8, 22, 24). Gives the Climbing Rope.
- Sloth Nest, Omar: Clock A shows 9:45, he woke up at 12:15, the climb takes 15 minutes, and he reached the top at 4:05 (Clock B shows 3:50).
- Trap Floor, Priya: area 36 square feet, perimeter 28 feet, the Jaguar Room's perimeter is 20 feet (4 by 6), and Room A has 4 more square feet (16 compared to 12).
- Hall of Glyphs, Kofi: snake 6, feather 7, paw 4, and Tablet 4 is 6 × 4 − 7 = 17. Opens the way to the Wheel Door.
- The Wheel Door: the code is Frog, Moon, Sun, Leaf (wheels 1 to 4). Reasoning: no Star and no Wave leaves Sun, Moon, Leaf and Frog. The Sun is on wheel 2 or 3 with the Leaf right after it. If the Sun is on wheel 2 and the Leaf on 3, the Moon cannot be on 4 (next to the Leaf), so the Moon is on 1 and the Frog on 4, which breaks Lani's clue. So the Sun is on 3 and the Leaf on 4, and the Frog cannot be on wheel 2, so the Frog is on 1 and the Moon on 2. To set it: roll wheel 1 until the Frog is on top (wheel 2 moves too), then set wheel 2 to the Moon, wheel 3 to the Sun, and wheel 4 to the Leaf. Each wheel goes around in this order: Sun, Moon, Leaf, Frog, Star, Wave.