Biology  by Bradford
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Free · Biology · Unit 4

DNA and protein synthesis escape room

The Permafrost Dig Camp

Your team flew north to help at a dig camp in the Arctic, where a woolly mammoth has thawed out of the permafrost. Then a blizzard hit, the generator failed, and the camp's security system sealed every hut. It will only open each door for people who understand how DNA carries the instructions for life. Five locks stand between your team and the plane. Each lock asks four questions, and your answers decode into its combination. Hurry: the freezer holding the mammoth's DNA samples is running on its last battery, and once it warms up, the DNA will break apart and be lost for good.

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
  • Forgrade 9 and 10 biology and pre-AP classes
  • Play linkbiologybybradford.com/escape/gb4

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

    Gear Tent Flap

    Pathway Easy

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

  2. Lock 2 · Understand

    Sample Freezer

    Patterns Easy

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

  3. Lock 3 · Apply

    Mammoth Pit Hatch

    Light panel Medium

    Add up the numbers above the shaded squares. Careful: every row puts them in a different order.

  4. Lock 4 · Analyse data

    Field Lab Cabinet

    Lock dials Medium

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

  5. Lock 5 · Evaluate

    Airstrip Gate

    Magic square Hard

    Every row, column and diagonal adds up to the same total, but you have to work out what it is first. One square is blank.

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 process that copies a cell's DNA before the cell divides?

    1. A Replication
    2. B Transcription
    3. C Translation
    4. D Fertilization

  2. Which list gives the four bases found in DNA?

    1. A Adenine, uracil, cytosine, guanine
    2. B Alanine, thymine, cytosine, guanine
    3. C Adenine, thymine, cytosine, guanine
    4. D Adenine, thymine, cysteine, glycine

  3. Which statement best describes a chromosome?

    1. A A single gene that codes for one protein and one trait
    2. B A long molecule of DNA, coiled around proteins
    3. C A strand of RNA that carries amino acids to ribosomes
    4. D A protein made at a ribosome that controls a trait

  4. Which is the best definition of a mutation?

    1. A A change in how a gene is used in different cells
    2. B A change in a protein's shape caused by heat
    3. C A change in behavior that helps an organism survive
    4. D A change in the sequence of bases in DNA

Pathway

Easy

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

ABCD8541

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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