Review High School Biology with this Free Escape Room

Recently I taught a biology lab class at our local homeschool co-op. Since we were the majority of the labs out of Apologia High School Biology in a semester rather than a year, I also provided the kids with an overview of the information. How else would the labs make sense? Really it worked well, and we completed the labs a week earlier than expected, so I wanted to do something fun for the last day of class. A Biology Themed Escape Room! 

It was great! It reviewed skills they had been taught while engaging their critical thinking and group cooperation skills. 

Supplies for a Biology Escape Room

• The Printable Pack (Available in the Resource Library)
• At least 4 Lockable Containers you can see into. We used cat carriers.
• 2 3-Digit Locks
• 4-Digit Locks
• 5-Digit Lock with numbers and letters
• Microscope with Animal Slide (optional)
• Stuffed Animals (optional)
• Potted Plants (optional)

Setting Up Your Biology Escape Room

There are more in depth instructions in the printable pack for exactly how everything will be set up, but basically you will want to give the idea that it could be an office/ lab area. The microscope and a magnifying glass add to that. A lab coat would be a nice tough too, and if you have a chalkboard or whiteboard doodle some biology things there for added effect. You will also find a name plaque (for Dr. L. Frank) in the printable kit to hang on the door. 

Now you will want to place your animals in their carriers on top of whatever clue they are supposed to be hiding and lock them in with the appropriate lock (it does matter). These are pretty silly locking animals, but what else would you expect from Dr. L. Frank the mad scientist. If you don't have actual stuffed animals that match, use the photos in the printable pack. 

Once everything is in place according to the instructions in the printable pack, hide the remaining clues throughout the room. Time to let the kids in, so they can stop Dr. Frank and free the animals! 

Solving the Biology Escape Room

My students had about an hour to complete this room as well did go over a little info before I introduced the escape room idea. You of course can vary this to fit your students ability and the number of kids you have participating. I had four, high school age students. 

After they have searched through the room to uncover as many of the puzzle pieces as they can they will have to start tackling the puzzles. Since some of the clues are hidden within the locked cages they will have to work in a specific order for part of the time. 

The Punnett Square is the first puzzle they need to solve, and they will need to find both the phenotype and genotype of the highlighted square. The phenotype they determine tells them which cage to open, and the genotype gives them the lock combination. Under the animal they should find a portion of a butterfly. 

The next puzzle is the parts of a cell puzzle. The have 3 cell options to look at (a prokaryote, an animal cell, and a plant cell). They decide which to look at based on what they find on the microscope. If you don't have a microscope just use the picture included in the printable pack. 

Once they know what type of cell to look at they can use the image of lightning, brain, and box to select the numbers for the mitochondria, brain, and golgi giving them the second combination. Under this animal they will also find  a portion of a butterfly. 

Next up is the transcription/ translation puzzle. This is definitely going to test them as they have to remember the steps through mRNA, tRNA, and finally make a peptide to get the correct code. Once they have successfully done this, they will have another code and discover another butterfly part under the freed animal.

They can now use the combined butterfly parts on the Dichotomous Key to discover the final combination. Under this animal they should find plant clue. When they find the correct plant the key is hidden there, so they (and the freed animals) can escape!

I am a big believer in using games to teach various skills, and team work and critical thinking are both very important skills to have! Escape games teach both of these, and work great in a homeschool co-op setting. 

If you would like to set up a Biology Themed Escape Room for your homeschool co-op or group or even just your kids, you can download the printables from my subscriber resource library. You will need to be an email subscriber to get the password; you can join our weekly news letter here.