5 More Chemistry Escape Room Puzzle Ideas

Do you use escape rooms in your chemistry classes? Have you always wanted to try escape rooms, but weren’t sure where to start generating puzzles and clues? If either of these is the case, this post is for you! In this post, I am going to mention some more puzzles and clues I have utilized in my high school chemistry escape rooms. These puzzles and clues are great for breakout boxes, and I have included 5 additional clue ideas in this post. These puzzles and clues are great for chemistry conceptual chemistry content. as well as mathematical chemistry content. If you’re interested in chemistry escape room puzzles and clues, read on for 5 MORE clue and puzzle ideas that you could implement with your chemistry breakouts.

Using Overlays as Escape Room Puzzle Ideas for Chemistry Classroom Breakouts — Overlays.

With an overlay, you have some sort of clue that sits behind, and the overlay with empty/open spaces on top, When the overlay is placed on top of the underlying grid, a message is revealed. The underlying message could be arrows, to provide the code for a directional lock. It could be numbers. Or it could be words that provide some sort of message. In my example to the left, you can see that the overlay, when placed on top of the underlying grid, instructs students to “find the fire extinguisher.” It then goes on to instruct students to find other safety features in the classroom. Once students find those locations, you can include another clue or code.
You can make this pretty quickly just by setting up a table for the underlay. I set my table up in a Google Slides presentation that was resized to 8.5x11. Type the words or symbols you want into the table for the underlay. Then copy the slide to make your overlay. On the overlay slide, change the text in the boxes you want to be solid to the same color as the fill and outline. For those cells you want to be “cut out” on the overlay, change the text to white and do not fill in the cell.
For actual usage, you can make the overlay by:
printing the overlay on a transparency
printing the overlay on cardstock and use an Exacto knife or similar craft knife to cut out the openings
print the overlay and have the students lift it up to the light once it has been laid on top of the underlay

Using Scramble Spins as a Puzzle Idea for High School Chemistry Escape Room Games — Scramble Spins.

In this puzzle, a message is scrambled. Students spin the various wheels until the message aligns and reveals a clue. In the clue to the right, the unscrambled message is a riddle that students need to decode. It instructs students to find the broken glass container. Students when then find that in the classroom, where I would leave an additional clue or code.
This one was a bit more complicated to make. I made this in Google Slides as well, but it took some time and effort. I might post a tutorial on how to make the scramble spin in Google Slides. Let me know if that is something you would be interested in. Otherwise, you probably could find an online generator that could achieve a similar effect.

Matching.

This is an easy one to set up. All you need are some cards that students can match up. If using with a breakout game, you will likely need to include some sort of clue that students can use to figure out what order they should go in. In my example to the left, you can see that the pieces of safety equipment are numbered. So that should clue students into the fact that they should go in numerical order. Students would then need to match the safety equipment to its purpose. You will notice on the purpose cards, I included arrows. These would be the directions that would need to be entered into a directional lock. You could put any number of symbols or letters on the purpose side as a clue. I used arrows since I wanted to include a directional lock, and I can include tons of directions on the directional lock (8 in this example!). 3-digit locks and 4-digit locks don’t allow for as many options.

Choice Selection Mazes for Chemistry Escape Room Puzzle Ideas — Choice Selection Mazes.

I included mazes in another blog post on escape room puzzle ideas. This is a maze as well, but it has a little twist. Students start in the upper left corner and read a statement. In my case, these are true and false statements, but they wouldn’t have to be. Students choose an answer. If the students pick the correct answer, it will take students to the next statement. If they choose the wrong answer, it will take students to a dead end. In this way, it is self-checking. Some may not want that in a breakout game. However, since this is likely the first game we will play all year, I am okay with it being a little easier to accomplish as we introduce breakout games. At the bottom, I included a clue that can be read using a pigpen cipher, and it informs students that “the answer lies in the sum.” Students would add up the numbers from the appropriate boxes. Those numbers added up to a 3-digit number, which they could use to unlock a 3-digit lock.
And by the way, the maze template itself is from TPT. Not one of my products, but you can find them on TPT.

BINGO.

Who doesn’t love a game of BINGO?! In this clue, ask students to cover all that fit a certain category. In my example of science lab safety, the instructions on the sheet inform students to mark any statements that are TRUE. But you could adapt that to anything really. Students can mark with actual Bingo chips, or if the sheet is laminated, they could use a dry erase marker. After marking all the TRUE statements, students should have BINGO on the board somewhere. That BINGO contains the code for a lock. In my case, I used colors, because I need 5 inputs on a lock. But you could also use letters in the boxes if you want, and get 5-letter word locks. You could put numbers in the boxes to get the code for a 5-digit number lock. You can get color wheels for the Breakout Edu locks on their website. But no matter how you do it, this activity is quite versatile and could be used for a variety of topics and locks in the chemistry classroom.

What do you think?! Are these puzzle ideas you could make for your classroom? Let me know on Instagram (@unbroken_bond) by sending me a DM or tagging me in your posts. Oh, and by the way, this Chemistry Lab Safety Breakout game is FREE if you are an email subscriber!