In a recent maths JAWS conference in Bangkok (St Andrew's Int. School), one of the teachers mentioned something called, 'Breakout EDU'. It's essentially a box secured with a variety of different locks, which you must find the codes/keys for by completing some sort of exercise. I guess it's more of a break-in, than break-out though. Either way, I liked the idea, but the price wasn't particularly cheap. There was only one thing for it... make my own.
I ended up spending around a thousand Baht (~£20) for the wood, hinges, 4 (adjustable) numerical combination locks, a regular key-lock and a chain. It took a few hours to make the actual box and a few more to make the first set of worksheets. However, now the worksheet template exists for easy adaptation in the future, and of course the mystery box is there and ready for anyone to use.
The first use of the 'mystery box' was a with a series of worksheets involving problems about money.
Each of the four teams had to correctly answer their worksheet to obtain the code for one of the four combo locks. Whichever team unlocked theirs first, could then try and attain the key for the master lock, by completing an additional challenge.
As you can imagine, with the box just sitting there in the days leading up to the challenge, there was an immense amount of curiosity and questions surrounding its content. The stage was set!
With their eagerness, nearly every group made a mistake in their worksheet and were unsuccessful at opening their lock the first time This forced them to go back and properly check their work. They eventually managed to open the box with just seconds to spare!
I was going to post the photo of the contents here, but then it wouldn't be a mystery box would it!
I ended up spending around a thousand Baht (~£20) for the wood, hinges, 4 (adjustable) numerical combination locks, a regular key-lock and a chain. It took a few hours to make the actual box and a few more to make the first set of worksheets. However, now the worksheet template exists for easy adaptation in the future, and of course the mystery box is there and ready for anyone to use.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."
Albert Einstein
The first use of the 'mystery box' was a with a series of worksheets involving problems about money.
Each of the four teams had to correctly answer their worksheet to obtain the code for one of the four combo locks. Whichever team unlocked theirs first, could then try and attain the key for the master lock, by completing an additional challenge.
As you can imagine, with the box just sitting there in the days leading up to the challenge, there was an immense amount of curiosity and questions surrounding its content. The stage was set!
With their eagerness, nearly every group made a mistake in their worksheet and were unsuccessful at opening their lock the first time This forced them to go back and properly check their work. They eventually managed to open the box with just seconds to spare!
I was going to post the photo of the contents here, but then it wouldn't be a mystery box would it!
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