Biology  by Bradford
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Free · IB Chemistry · Structure 2

Bonding and structure escape room

The Sealed Materials Foundry

A power surge has sealed your team inside a materials foundry, where alloys are cast, crystals are grown and polymers are spun. The safety computer has bolted every door and will release them only to a crew that can explain why ionic, covalent and metallic substances behave the way they do. Five locks stand between you and the loading bay. Each lock poses four questions, and your answers decode into its combination. Crack all five before the furnaces finish their automatic heat-up and the casting hall grows too hot to breathe.

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
  • ForIB Chemistry SL and HL classes, every value a question needs given (calculations on data-booklet constants)
  • Play linkbiologybybradford.com/escape/c-s2

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 Antechamber

    Lock dials Easy

    Each letter has a dial. Read the number the needle points to.

  2. Lock 2 · Understand

    Quenching Tunnel

    Symbol grid Easy

    Find the row for the question and the column for your answer. Swap the symbol for its number using the key.

  3. Lock 3 · Apply

    Crystal Press Room

    Pathway Medium

    Start at your letter and go straight down. Cross every rung you meet. Your digit is where you finish.

  4. Lock 4 · Analyse data

    Distillation Hall

    Overlay Medium

    Only segments lit on BOTH panels count. Read the number they make.

  5. Lock 5 · Evaluate

    Loading Bay Door

    Number pyramid Hard

    Each brick is the sum of the two below it. The clues are high up the pyramid, so work down carefully.

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. A sulfur atom has the electron configuration 1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁴. What is the charge on the ion it forms in ionic compounds?

    1. A 2+
    2. B 2−
    3. C 6+
    4. D 4−

  2. Which is the correct formula of the hydrogencarbonate ion?

    1. A CO₃²⁻
    2. B HCO₃²⁻
    3. C H₂CO₃⁻
    4. D HCO₃⁻

  3. Which statement describes a metallic bond?

    1. A Electrostatic attraction between a lattice of cations and delocalized electrons
    2. B Electrostatic attraction between a lattice of cations and a lattice of anions
    3. C A shared pair of electrons attracted to the nuclei of two neighbouring metal atoms
    4. D Attraction between neighbouring metal atoms caused by temporary induced dipoles

  4. What structural feature must a monomer have to form an addition polymer?

    1. A Two different functional groups, one at each end of the molecule
    2. B A hydroxyl group that is lost as water when the monomers join
    3. C A carbon-carbon double bond that breaks as the monomers join
    4. D A chlorine atom on each carbon that bonds to the next monomer

Lock dials

Easy

Each letter has a dial. Read the number the needle points to.

0123456789A
0123456789B
0123456789C
0123456789D

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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