A puzzling challenge.
Mr Dellow, Head of e-Learning and ICT, and his team embarked on another challenge this year. He takes up the story,
‘After the success of last year’s Escape Room, it was decided that a follow-up was required. This year saw a change of the format as, instead of being locked in a room, teams of participants were let loose on the school grounds in a bid to stop a deadly computer virus from spreading across the Internet. The digital super virus, Ada, was named after Ada Lovelace. A gifted nineteenth century mathematician, daughter of Lord Byron, who is widely accepted as the world’s first computer programmer.
Girls were armed with a mobile phone and an initial puzzle. Once the first puzzle had been solved, the girls had access to the contents of the mobile phone. They then had to communicate with HQ (a game desk staffed by Mr Dellow and students) to find further puzzles hidden around the grounds. Each puzzle drew the teams closer to the final challenge which, ultimately, put a stop to the virus.
The puzzles used the school grounds to help teams uncover clues. Jesus faces north according to our smartphone compass.
Around 100 students entered, although, not all teams were successful. We did, however, have three teams who successfully completed the mission and one Form III team who were just two digits away. The puzzles are not strictly computer science related but they do require one to think outside the box, use communication and teamwork, problem solve, think logically… and quickly!
The winning group, above. Fittingly our Lower V computer scientists were the quickest to stop the virus with an impressive 8 minutes and 20 seconds remaining.
Can you work out the two missing digits from the puzzle below? This is a puzzle taken from one of our challenges. Answers on a postcard or email to mdellow@sapriory.com
Ada staff helped to set up games and communicate with participants.
Categories: Senior Sixth Form Whole School
