Writing a creative storyline is one of the key components to creating an engaging escape room. Without a story to follow along with, an educational escape room can become a thinly veiled worksheet.
A good backstory draws you into the escape room. Participants can take on the role of a spy, researcher, or student stuck on a field trip that has gone wrong. This builds excitement as students feel connected to the breakout and can create a sense of urgency to complete the mission.
The puzzles and clues should all relate to the backstory and be connected in a logical order. When I create an escape room, I always begin by choosing my theme/storyline. Then I figure out a logical progression for the puzzles and clues that help me tell the story.
Here are ten ideas to get you thinking about escape room backstories!
Catch a Criminal
Put your students in the role of a detective or spy as they work to crack a case and catch a criminal. You can create top secret dossiers, confidential mission documents, and badges to help students step into their role. Elements of suspense and mystery are simple to add in to this type of theme. This theme lends itself to decoding ciphers to find passwords, finding the combinations to locks with matching or multiple choice, and decoding secret messages using educational content standards. Will the students catch the criminal, or will he/she escape to cause more problems another day?
Escape the Haunted House
Haunted house themed escape rooms aren’t just for Halloween time; they are popular year-round! Create a spooky (but not too scary) storyline full of ghosts and ghouls as students navigate puzzles and unlock locks to achieve their freedom! Create puzzles to help navigate the hallways, unlock doors, and choose the correct path to avoid frightening obstacles.
Breakout of the Pyramid
Capitalize on students’ interest in Ancient Egypt by creating an Egyptian-themed escape room! Use hieroglyphics to create ciphers, tie in real historical information with creative puzzles, free the pharaoh, escape the mummy – the possibilities with this theme are endless!
Lunar Escape
Space is another theme that kids love. You can create an escape room to escape the moon and return the astronauts safely to earth. Maybe oxygen is running low, or a solar flare is threatening your team’s safety. Find codes to enable a launch or navigational sequence while you create a sense of urgency for safely returning home!
Stop the Train!
Perhaps the navigation system has been hacked into on a plane, train, or boat, and your class needs to take back control before the vehicle goes careening off course. It’s a race against time! This theme lends itself well to directional locks (using keys such as N, S, E, W), or arrow locks (possibly greater than/less than puzzles).
Escape the Book!
Novels, short stories, and poems are all great escape room themes! The main character can solve puzzles related to the plot & theme of the book. You can make your own theme on a popular children’s story like we’ve done with Revenge of the Gingerbread Man. If you are making breakouts based on books for commercial use, please make sure you are respecting copyright and trademark rules.
Trapped in Time
Pick a time period that your class has been studying, and use historical facts to create your theme. Perhaps you are going to be trapped in the Jurassic or trying to escape the 1700’s. You can have students solve puzzles to repair their time machine, or figure out codes to enter destinations – the possibilities are endless!
Holiday/Seasonal Themes
Let’s be honest, it’s hard to keep students focused before breaks! Escape rooms are great to use at class parties. Students are having a great time without even realizing they are still working towards mastering standards. We’ve created escape rooms for Halloween, Thanksgiving, winter break, Valentine’s Day, Earth Day, the end of the school year, and more! This type of breakout is great to use with small groups during class parties. If you plan to sell your educational escape rooms, then the holiday/seasonal themes will boost sales during different times of the year.
Out of Control AI
Your school’s robotics club creates a robot that can do it all. The problem is that the robot tries to take over the school! Create puzzles and clues to help your students stop the robot from taking over everything! Figure out a logical sequence for the puzzles. You may need a code to shut down a robot, then you have to find the computer password to find the program that runs the robot. A puzzle might be encoded in robot symbols, and of course you will need codes to reprogram the robot!
Escape Antarctica
Race to escape this frozen continent before a major storm comes through, or repair the heating system at the science lab where you are stationed. An Antarctic adventure creates a sense of urgency to escape! I used this theme for a sixth grade math escape room focusing on absolute value and comparing integers.
The possibilities are truly endless when coming up with breakout themes! Have fun, and be creative when coming up with a backstory. You can make any theme your own with a unique storyline.
Share your theme ideas in the comments below!
