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 the Weather Lab, help 9 scientists, and collect 9 clues about the Sky Mixer recipe (Dr. Skye gives a 10th at the start). The finale is a fraction logic puzzle: they work out how much of each ingredient goes in (in eighths of a bowl) and the pouring order, then pour scoops of 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8 to fill the bowl to exactly 1 whole.
- This room pairs well with the Storm Chasers unit. The story is make believe (nobody can really mix the weather, and Dr. Skye says so at the end), but the weather science and facts are real.
- The lab opens up as they go: Kenji's Elevator Key opens the 2nd Floor, Lin's Puffy Coat opens the snowy Roof Deck, and Bodhi turns the power back on for the Sky Mixer.
- Skills: reading thermometers with negative numbers (and finding the difference across zero), the water cycle in order (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection), cloud types (cirrus, cumulus, stratus, cumulonimbus), reading rain gauges to the quarter inch and adding and subtracting mixed numbers, wind direction with weather vanes and a compass, sun position and shadows through the day, timing lightning (5 seconds per mile), a temperature pattern as a weather balloon rises, coordinate grid storm tracking, and equivalent fractions in eighths, fourths and halves.
- The finale: five clues decide the amounts and three clues decide the pouring order. Every clue is needed, and only one recipe works. Bodhi's clue explains the scoops. The bowl must be filled to exactly 1 whole before they can mix. A wrong recipe makes them wait 20, 40, then 60 seconds, so reasoning beats guessing. The Recipe Notes grid (on the side and in the finale) lets teams mark X or a check for each amount and each pouring spot.
- Wrong answers on the other puzzles lock that puzzle for a short wait (15 seconds, then 30, 45, 60). Hints: 3 per puzzle (the mixer has 3 too), one every 45 seconds.
- Bonus: 11 golden suns 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 lab, the town, the characters and the story) is original, so it is safe to share.
Timer
Minutes until the Summer Fair starts: (teams can keep playing in overtime; the award says "Solved in overtime")
Answers
- Thermometer Lab, Theo: A shows −8, B shows 14, the coldest is C (−14), B is 22 degrees warmer than A, and 10 degrees colder than D (6) is −4. Students type the minus sign with the dash key.
- Water Room, Marisol: step 1 the sun warms the ocean, step 2 water turns into water vapor and rises, step 3 the vapor cools into tiny drops, step 4 the drops make a cloud, step 5 the drops fall as rain or snow, step 6 the water flows back to the ocean. Evaporation is step 2, condensation 3, precipitation 5, collection 6.
- Cloud Deck, Kenji: Window A cumulonimbus, B cirrus, C stratus, D cumulus. The highest cloud is in Window B, and Window A means a thunderstorm. Gives the Elevator Key.
- Rain Garden, Rosa: A 1 1/4, B 2 3/4, C 3/4 inches. B has 1 1/2 more than A, and all three make 4 3/4 inches.
- Wind Tunnel, Pablo: Vane 1 is a north wind. Vane 2 points west, so smoke drifts toward the east. The cups spin 48 times in a minute (6 groups of 10 seconds). A south wind sends the kite toward the north.
- Sun Room, Lin: the order is C, D, A, B (long shadow west, shorter shadow west, short noon shadow north, long shadow east). When a shadow points west, the sun is in the east. Gives the Puffy Coat.
- Lightning Lab, Dev: 3 miles, coming closer, 20 seconds, 7 miles.
- Balloon Deck, Hazel: 3,000 feet is 51, 5,000 feet is 45, 4,000 feet is 12 degrees colder, and 39 degrees is at 7,000 feet (students may type 7000 or 7,000).
- Satellite Room, Bodhi: the snow cloud reaches Breezy Bay in 3 hours (B4, C4, D4, E4). The thunderstorm reaches Hailstone in 4 hours (D1 up to D5). Turns on the Sky Mixer.
- The Sky Mixer: pour Sunshine 3/8, then Water Vapor 1/8, then Warm Air 1/4 (2/8), then Breeze 1/4 (2/8), and no Cold Air. Reasoning: there is no Cold Air. Warm Air and Breeze are equal and make 1/2 together, so each is 1/4. That leaves 4/8 for Sunshine and Water Vapor; there is some Water Vapor and more Sunshine, so Sunshine is 3/8 and Water Vapor is 1/8. Sunshine goes first, Water Vapor comes before Warm Air, and Breeze comes right after Warm Air. Sunshine 3/8 can be poured as 1/4 then 1/8 (or three 1/8 scoops).