Escape the Mystery Room

Field Trip Provides Problem Solving Opportunity Outside the Classroom

Brooke Callanan, Contributor January 8, 20191 Comment

Students and teachers from Abington High School’s Language Buddy Program enjoy time together during their Escape the Mystery Room field trip to Kingston on November 30, 2018. Front (left to right) are Brooke Callanan ’20, Sthefany De Paula ’21, Samantha Johnson ’20, and Vianne Shao ’20. In the second row (left to right) are Ms. Despres, ELL teacher, Valencia Bernard ’20, Shaam Nasser ’20, Faith Kramer ’21, Hudson Arujo ’21, Mayra Hidalgo ’20, Ms. Scofano, ELL director, and Aiyana Matthis ’21. Middle (left to right) are Ms. Nunes, ELL teacher, Bryan Dias ’21, Helvecio Junior ’22, Pedro Souza ’21, Haikela Araujo ’22, Samuel Carvalho ’20, Sabrina Medieros ’21, Luciano Da Silva ’21, and Yousef Elhannawi ’21. Standing in the rear (left to right) are Rafael Goncalves ’20, Mikayla Littman ’20, and Carolyn Doherty ’21.

On Friday Nov. 30, Abington High School students in the Language Buddy Program went on a field trip to “Escape The Mystery Room” in Kingston. The field trip allowed the Language Buddies and ELL (English Language Learners) to create new friendships, practice team building skills, and get to know more about each others culture.

The Language Buddy Program is an after school program where ELLs who have come to Abington from a variety of countries, and whose mother tongue is not English, hang out with students, or Buddies, who are well-versed in English.  During the meetings the students do fun learning activities and talk to people they may have never spoken to before.

During the field trip to the Mystery Room, which was run by the Language Buddy adviser Ms. Scofano and ELL teachers Ms. Nunes and Ms. Despres, the students were paired up randomly and assigned a room from which they had to escape. Each scenario in the Mystery Room took around 50 minutes to complete. Throughout that time, students were required to work together in order to break the language barrier and solve the problem of how to escape the room.

Language Buddy and NHS member Samantha Johnson ’20 enjoyed the field trip. Johnson said she joined the program because “I am in International Club and we had a joint meeting with Language Buddies. It was a lot of fun, so I decided to join.” Johnson said a benefit to being in the Language Buddy Program is that she gets to hang out with people she normally does not see in her classes. “And I enjoy meeting new people” she said.

Several of the ELLs and Language Buddies speak Portuguese. Some other languages students speak include Arabic, Spanish, and French. When asked if she can speak another language, Johnson replied “No, I don’t, but I would like to.”

On this field trip, students learned about the importance of communication and collaboration. ELL student Sthefany DePaula said, “I learned that team work can help you succeed and that sometimes it’s good for you to get out of your comfort zone.” DePaula said the trip “was very educational.” But, more importantly, DePaula said that “the part I liked the most was that I made new friends.”