Biology  by Bradford
support
Free · AP Chemistry · Unit 2

Compound Structure and Properties escape room

The Old Bell Foundry

A power cut has trapped your team inside an old bell foundry, where the night shift was casting a new bronze alloy. The furnace is still roaring, the vents have jammed shut, and every steel door has dropped into place behind a keypad. The chief metallurgist hid the codes in chemistry: how atoms bond, how ions pack into crystals, how metal atoms share their electrons and how electron pairs arrange themselves around a central atom. Five locks stand between you and the loading yard. Each lock poses four questions, and your answers decode into its combination. Crack all five before the furnace overheats and the sprinklers flood the casting floor.

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 Chemistry classes, every value a question needs given (calculations on the AP equation sheet and periodic table)
  • Play linkbiologybybradford.com/escape/apc2

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

    Furnace Door

    Symbol sums Easy

    One symbol's value is given. Use it to unlock the others, then swap your letters for symbols.

  2. Lock 2 · Understand

    Casting Floor

    Pathway Easy

    Start at your letter and go straight down. Every time you meet a rung, cross it. Your digit is where you finish.

  3. Lock 3 · Apply

    Crucible Store

    Lock dials Medium

    The dials have no numbers. 0 is the pink notch at the top; count ticks clockwise to the needle.

  4. Lock 4 · Analyse data

    Assay Office

    Magic square Medium

    Every row, column and diagonal adds up to the total shown. One square is blank as well as the lettered ones: work through it.

  5. Lock 5 · Evaluate

    Bell Tower Gate

    Overlay Hard

    Panel 2 is upside down. Turn it round in your head; only segments lit on both panels count.

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. Based on their positions in the periodic table, which pair of elements is most likely to form an ionic bond?

    1. A Carbon and oxygen
    2. B Copper and zinc
    3. C Potassium and fluorine
    4. D Nitrogen and hydrogen

  2. Which model best describes the bonding in a solid piece of copper?

    1. A Metal cations held in a sea of delocalized valence electrons
    2. B Metal anions held together by a sea of mobile protons
    3. C Neutral atoms sharing fixed, localized pairs of electrons
    4. D Alternating cations and anions packed into a rigid lattice

  3. How many valence electrons in total must a correct Lewis diagram of the phosphate ion, PO₄³⁻, show?

    1. A 26
    2. B 29
    3. C 40
    4. D 32

  4. A central atom has four electron domains: four bonding pairs and no lone pairs. Which molecular geometry and bond angle does the molecule have?

    1. A Square planar, 90°
    2. B Tetrahedral, 109.5°
    3. C Trigonal pyramidal, 107°
    4. D Trigonal planar, 120°

Symbol sums

Easy

One symbol's value is given. Use it to unlock the others, then swap your letters for symbols.

= 9
+= 15
+= 11
+= 13
A = B = C = D =

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.

More AP Chemistry escape rooms