Department of Psychological Sciences hosts Escape Room
By Ashley Inge—
Managing Editor
The Mad Scientist Escape Room will be located in the second floor of the Math Building in Room 222 and will be open every day until Oct. 30.
Photo courtesy of Bozer Neuroscience Lab’s Facebook
The Department of Psychological Sciences and the Bozer Neuroscience Lab are hosting The Mad Scientist Escape Room. It is located in the second floor of the Math Building in Room 222. The Escape Room opened on Oct. 22 and will be open every day until Oct. 30. The Escape Room costs $100 for a team of four. All proceeds from this event will create opportunities for students that typically cannot attend a study abroad trip. There are different kinds of these types of games, all over the world and they are pretty popular, for example, something like this room escape game Perth as well as others.
The Escape Room scenario is a zombie virus break-out. The Escape Room is built with cubicle walls within the Bozer Neuroscience Lab. Each team of four will have one hour to search and solve various clues, riddles and puzzles to find the key/combo that opens the exit. After a short introductory video, each team will be “locked in” and the time will start. The two teams that escape the room the fastest will be awarded prizes.
The idea for the Escape Room originated from Dr. Amber Harris Bozer, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, over the summer as an opportunity to raise money for study abroad. Escape rooms have become massively popular over the last couple of years, and are used for numerous reasons – like this San Diego team building room, what better way to get to know your colleagues than problem solving (and screaming). Of course, escape rooms went on to become the phenomena we see today. They are wildly popular and are great venues for parties. See here for a great example in Atlanta: https://www.paranoiaquest.com/atlanta/
Many people had input on the creation of the escape room, a Google Doc was created to brainstorm..
“At first, [the Google Doc] was more of a list of themes, supplies, and structure of the room that was put together by members of the Bozer Neuroscience Lab. It wasn’t until Dr. Bozer and Dr. Dias planned an official Escape Room meeting that we started turning the list into a plan of action,” said Tracy Brown, a graduate student in the Department of Psychological Sciences. “During the meeting, Drs. Dias and Bozer decided to let the event be student-led with Cristian Botello and I taking lead. Kayli Colpits and Regine Porter have also played a big role in making this come to life.”
Brown said that the Department of Psychological Sciences is excited to see what people will think.
“We have all brainstormed after watching many videos and talking to people that have completed an escape room. We have also purchased Escape Room games from Amazon to understand the best way to set them up,” Brown said.
Brown also gave some tips for students who have never been in an Escape Room before.
“Familiarize yourself with how Escape Rooms work. Find team members with different skill sets to expand your team’s overall knowledge. You may also want to elect a leader to make quick decisions. Remember, you are on the clock. You can also purchase hints during registration that will come in handy later,” Brown said.
For those who might be worried about anxiety attacks, Brown said that there is space for an emergency exit in the Escape Room.
“Since the Escape Room is designed with cubicles, the exit is a shower curtain type of material that is locked together towards the top, leaving ample space below for an emergency exit. Also, there is an employee using a two-way monitor to see and hear participants during the event and they can stop it at any time,” Brown said.
Brown added that she “would like to thank the ALE office for providing the funds to make this happen and Drs. Bozer and Dias for helping us along the way.”
Tickets can be purchased online and participants can reserve the hour they would like to go through the Escape Room. There are five time slots available for participants from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. If students are not interested in competing in the Escape Room, they can also participate in the raffle.
For more information, contact Brown at tracy.brown@go.tarleton.edu or contact Cristian Botello at cristian.botello@go.tarleton.edu.
