WAR AND PEACE - DEFEND THE FORT ESCAPE ROOM By Khadijah Baloni

WAR AND PEACE : "DEFEND THE FORT" ESCAPE ROOM


Target Audience: Students from grades 7 - 10

Theme: War & Peace

Location: Adaptable to classrooms and community centers

Duration: 45 minutes

Overview

An escape room is a game room set up for participants to solve puzzles and discover hidden clues within a certain amount of time allocated to them to find their way out. This chosen medium is an interactive learning experience.

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

This escape room's aim is to educate the students on the history of Fort York and the 1812 war as well as making them feel like a part of history by re enacting possible past events in real time and see how they react in war time scenarios. It is an interactive experience that helps develop critical thinking, problem solving, conflict resolution, collaboration and teamwork.

Game and Activity Plan

Teams: Small groups 3–5 people each per teams will  represent different roles at the fort, each group will be assigned a different challenge but must ultimately work and come together to defend the fort .

Team 1 

  • Soldiers

Team 2

  • Medical team 

Team 3

  • Indigenous leaders

Objects and tools:

  • Replica artifacts (guns, cannonballs, medic first aid box)
  • Clues and puzzles on laminated cards
  • A map of Fort York (current & modern day)
  • Prop uniform items to differentiate between the different teams
  • Indigenous artifacts

Escape Room Game



It's the year 1813, and Fort York is under attack. Members of the Fort’s garrison must prepare and put up defences to secure the fort, participants must map out a plan, secure supplies, and make tough decisions to defend the fort and the community. The game has a total number of 4 challenges and each group starts out individually in 3 different rooms to solve their first group scenario before all coming to work together to complete the final challenge. Each challenge should take approximately 10 minutes to complete, a group can move on to the next room if they finish early to assist each other in completing a task
  • Challenge 1 : Team 1 is tasked with decrypting a message from an informant working for the enemy, this encrypted message explains that the fort is in imminent danger and contains the point of attack and figuring out which weapons to use to defend themselves.
  • Team will solve basic math problems to determine how much gunpowder to distribute among the cannons and guns.
  •  Team will be given an envelope that contains a word puzzle to decode the message. eg;



  • Challenge 2 : Team 2 is tasked with treating two injured soldiers and doing so in time before the enemies infiltrate and find them
  • Team will be given a list of symptoms to figure out the right treatment plan to move on to the next stage.
  • Challenge 3 : Team 3 is tasked with an alliance opportunity that involves working with the soldiers to save the land and protect it from the enemy using a map to find alternative counter attack routes.
  • Team will be tasked with finding out what role the indigenous people played in the 1812 war to move on to the next stage through a map and information provided.
  • Challenge 4 : All groups are tasked with using all three of their clues , the decoded informant report, treatment and injury report and the alliance map to create a defence plan.
  • The final challenge is a collaboration of all the teams working together, The soldiers, the medical team and the indigenous people to defend the fort with all their skills and knowledge, this challenge shows participants the power behind working together and insight on how war needs all hands on deck to  reach the desired goal. 


Debrief and Reflection

After the participants successfully complete the game they will be invited to discuss their experience and what they took away from the experience.

  • Were the challenges educational?
  • How did this interactive exercise change your understanding of the war that took place at Fort York?
  • How can we apply the lessons of resilience and community from Fort York to modern challenges?
  • How do some of the objects and artifacts connect to the theme of War and Peace?


Conclusion

The aim of this escape room is to test out the participants' critical thinking, communication skills and team work. It is also a mentally stimulating and educational experience that leaves them with knowledge of Fort York by working together and learning from the past. These participants can better appreciate how historical lessons apply to building stronger, more collaborative communities today.