Biology  by Bradford
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Free · AP Biology · Unit 1

Chemistry of Life escape room

The Frozen Lake Station

A blizzard has sealed your team inside a research station on the shore of a frozen Arctic lake. The station's computer has locked every door until someone proves they understand the chemistry that keeps life going beneath the ice. Five locks stand between you and the snowcat garage. Each lock poses four questions, and your answers decode into its combination. Crack all five before the generator runs low and the heaters switch off.

Play it onlineTeacher pack (PDF)
  • 5 locksfour multiple-choice questions at each, 20 in all
  • About 45 minutesfor a team of three or four
  • Online or on papera link to play, or the pack to print
  • ForAP Biology classes
  • Play linkbiologybybradford.com/escape/u1

The five locks

Each lock’s four answers are decoded with its puzzle into a four-digit combination, so one wrong answer keeps it shut. The questions climb from recall to evaluating evidence.
  1. Lock 1 · Recall

    Mudroom Door

    Patterns Easy

    Find the missing number. Your digit is its last digit (47 gives 7).

  2. Lock 2 · Understand

    Sample Freezer

    Petri dishes Easy

    Each letter is a petri dish. Count the colonies growing in it.

  3. Lock 3 · Apply

    Weather Tower Hatch

    Dice Medium

    Add all three dice beside your letter. A blank face counts as 0.

  4. Lock 4 · Analyse data

    Boiler Room Gate

    Logic clues Medium

    A, B, C and D are four different digits. No clue gives a value away; combine them.

  5. Lock 5 · Evaluate

    Snowcat Garage

    Symbol grid Hard

    Find the question's row, then read the cell one column to the RIGHT of your answer (D wraps round to A). Work out the symbol from the key.

Lock 1, as a team sees it

The first four questions and their decoder. The answers, and the reason for each, are in the teacher pack.

  1. What is the name of the reaction that covalently joins two monomers and releases a molecule of water?

    1. A Dehydration synthesis
    2. B Hydrogen bonding
    3. C Ionic bond formation
    4. D Hydrolysis

  2. Which monomer is linked into long chains to build a protein?

    1. A Nucleotide
    2. B Amino acid
    3. C Monosaccharide
    4. D Fatty acid

  3. Which element forms four covalent bonds and serves as the backbone of organic molecules?

    1. A Carbon
    2. B Nitrogen
    3. C Oxygen
    4. D Hydrogen

  4. Animals store glucose in liver and muscle cells as which polysaccharide?

    1. A Cellulose
    2. B Starch
    3. C Chitin
    4. D Glycogen

Patterns

Easy

Find the missing number. Your digit is its last digit (47 gives 7).

A433527?11
B656055?45
C474441?35
D97898173?

Running it

  1. Online: send teams the play link. They answer a lock’s four questions, decode the letters and enter the combination; after lock 5 they get a completion code to show you. Nobody needs an account.
  2. On paper: sign in (free) and print the teacher pack: question cards, the five decoders, a guide and the answer key with a reason for every answer.
  3. Your version: Edit a copy from the library to change any question, then play and print it by its own code, or build a room from the topics your class has covered.

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