Exploring a STEAM-Inspired Escape Room in the Library

Every year on STEAM Day, normal coursework pauses for a day as students in the Lower and Middle Schools participate in immersive workshops and activities that promote science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) education. In April 2026, the Lower/Middle School librarians created an escape room activity to engage students in creative problem-solving and deductive reasoning. The inspiration for the escape room came, not surprisingly, from a book. 

“I had just read a middle grade mystery “The Sherlock Society” by James Ponti where the librarian in the story created an escape room for the characters," said LMS Librarian Lisa Fall. The fact that neither she nor her colleague, librarian Jenny Perinovic, had ever experienced an escape room did not deter them. "We had to preface all the sessions by saying we have no idea what an escape room is supposed to be, but here's how ours works."

The goal of the activity was to liberate the Library's reading buddies, which are stuffed animals resembling storybook characters that kids like to snuggle with while reading. The buddies were locked together with a bicycle lock, and the students had to discover the code to open it and set them free.  

Students worked in small groups on activities like putting books on a shelf in alphabetical order, solving logic puzzles to reveal a Dewey Decimal Number, and drawing pictures for a word, Pictionary-style. The librarians sought to showcase all components of STEAM and "plant the flag, very firmly, that Library Science is a science," added Jenny. 

The teamwork on display was exciting to watch, as kids suggested different ways to tackle the same problem. "There were kids who shined that might not have risen to the top in other situations," noted Lisa. 

A challenge was figuring out how to keep the answer a secret between sessions, since the librarians ran the Escape Room six separate times on STEAM Day. They decided to rank the groups based on the time it took to free the reading buddies. Students knew the group with the fastest time would win, which encouraged them to keep the answer to themselves as they transitioned to the next activity.

The students' feedback was so positive that the librarians decided to adapt the activity for teachers during a May 2026 faculty in-service day. The only negative comments the librarians received came from students who had assumed they would be locked inside the LMS Library and have to find their way out. "Those were the kids who had actually been in a professional escape room before," said Jenny. And some were disappointed they didn't get to do all the activities, because there wasn't time for each group to do more than one. 

Participants wanting more is a sure sign of success, and no doubt most will wish for the librarians to plan something similar for next year.