Physics junior Emmaleigh Mansfield, center, stands on a table while Dreak Lanier, Science Learning Center program manager, left, and biology junior Caia Wallace hand her black silk during the making of an escape room Oct. 20 in the Science Learning Center. It was the center’s first escape room.
The Science Learning Center hosted its first escape room Wednesday. The center was transformed for the event, with students stepping into a spooky laboratory.
Students went through two escape rooms, said Dreak Lanier, Science Learning Center program manager. The center had an intermediate escape room and a hard escape room.
Ashley Perez Galvan, student associate for the center, said the intermediate level involved figuring out why a mad scientist left a microbiology sample in the room.
The hard escape room had a missing molecular sample, she said, and students found the missing piece. The puzzles involved a lot of science and math, Perez Galvan said, with the rooms designed for student groups to work together.
“It’s a great way for you to get a good taste of both science and chemistry, biology, math and all other kinds of STEM,” she said.
Program manager Dreak Lanier takes newspaper wrapping out of a box during the making of an escape room Oct. 20 in the Science Learning Center. The center provides study aids and educational resources to students in the College of Science.
The event was initially thought of because Lanier wanted to highlight the center. With all of the construction going on in the Life Science Building, she said students haven’t used the center as much, except around exam times.
Working with the college’s marketing manager and the center’s student employees, Lanier came up with the designs, using artificial intelligence to fine-tune the event, she said.
Perez Galvan said they began preparing Friday to get decorations and come up with the puzzles. On Monday and Tuesday, she said, they began decorating and setting up the room.
Anatomy models, chemistry model sets and more were present in the rooms, Lanier said.
While testing the puzzles, they were able to see where things could be set up and what exactly they wanted to put in the puzzles, Perez Galvan said.
“My thought with the escape room was that we could utilize some of the things that we have here, some of our lesser-used items,” Lanier said.
She said the event was intended to help students become familiar with the center’s resources and bring awareness to what’s available for students to use.
Biological chemistry senior Amacia Horne wipes down anatomical models during the making of an escape room Oct. 20 in the Science Learning Center. Students can check out anatomical models from the center.
“Even though it is kind of a fun goal, but it is something that they can utilize,” she said.
The center’s staff dressed up — the actors in lab coats, the helpers in costumes. Perez Galvan dressed up as Ash Ketchum from Pokémon, she said.
Once students completed the room, they received Halloween candy and a note saying things like “Happy Halloween.”
“I definitely had fun preparing for it,” she said. “It’s a good way for everyone from all majors, from all seniority, to interact with each other and help each other out through the process.”
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