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Ecology Escape Room (Biology) | Digital Google Forms + Decoders | Biotic/Abiotic, Symbiosis, Graphs
1-class digital escape room review with decoders + Google Form.
This digital escape-room style activity provides structured review of core ecology concepts through a sequence of problem-solving stations. Students apply previously learned skills to unlock codes by analyzing data, using classification tools, and interpreting ecological relationships.
Students rotate through five stations, each targeting a different ecological skill set:
Distinguishing biotic and abiotic factors
Using a dichotomous key to identify organisms
Applying ecology vocabulary in a Wordle-style logic puzzle
Determining benefits and harms in symbiotic relationships
Interpreting ecology graphs to extract missing information
At each station, students use their answers to generate part of an escape code. The codes must be combined and formatted correctly to complete the challenge, reinforcing both content accuracy and attention to detail.
This activity is designed to:
assess understanding of major ecology concepts
require students to apply knowledge rather than recall definitions
integrate multiple ecology skills in a single task
function as a cumulative review or end-of-unit application
A teacher key is included to support efficient implementation. This lesson works well as an ecology unit review or as a synthesis activity before assessment.
Grade recommendation
Middle School — Grades 7–8 (Life Science / Ecology unit)
High School — Grade 9 (introductory Biology / Ecology)
To preview this escape room, click here.
Cross-Curricular Connections & Extensions
ELA / Literacy: Wordle-style vocabulary station and CER-style explanation prompts → supports informational reading, short-answer writing, and evidence-based claims.
Math: Graph interpretation, proportions (biomagnification), and basic data-reading skills at Station Five.
Computer Science / Digital Citizenship: Use of Google Forms for assessment — opportunity to teach form navigation, digital submission etiquette, and using online feedback.
Extension Ideas:
Have students design their own one-station mini-escape clue (assesses synthesis).
Expand Station Five into a data-analysis mini-lab (students graph raw data and write a CER).
Join the Lesson Laboratory and Teach for Tomorrow!
NGSS alignment
Middle School Performance Expectations
MS-LS2-1 — Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-2 — Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
MS-LS2-3 — Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-4 — Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
MS-LS2-5 — Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Middle School Focus:
The activity supports analysis of food webs, succession, and biomagnification — all foundational ecology concepts emphasized in MS-LS2. Students identify cause-and-effect relationships in simulated ecosystems and justify their reasoning with data (Station 5)
High School Performance Expectations
HS-LS2-1 — Use mathematical and/or computational representations to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of ecosystems at different scales.
HS-LS2-2 — Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.
HS-LS2-6 — Evaluate claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms under stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
HS-LS2-7 — Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
HS-LS4-6 — Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity.
High School Focus:
For 9th-grade biology, this escape room can serve as an introductory modeling and systems-thinking activity. Students interpret data on population changes, apply reasoning about biodiversity and stability, and use simple quantitative reasoning (via graphs and patterns) to model carrying capacity and trophic interactions.
Science & Engineering Practices (SEPs) — used in the escape room:
Developing and using models (dichotomous key, decoding tools).
Analyzing and interpreting data (Station Five graphs, biomass/biomagnification questions).
Constructing explanations & engaging in argument from evidence (vocabulary CER and interpretation tasks).
Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) emphasized:
Systems and system models (food chains/webs, ecosystem as system).
Cause and effect (how changes in one population affect another; pollution/biomagnification implications).
Patterns (recognizing succession stages, energy loss up trophic levels)
Common Core
RST.6–8.1 / RST.9–10.1 — cite evidence from prompts or graphs to answer questions.
1-class digital escape room review with decoders + Google Form.
This digital escape-room style activity provides structured review of core ecology concepts through a sequence of problem-solving stations. Students apply previously learned skills to unlock codes by analyzing data, using classification tools, and interpreting ecological relationships.
Students rotate through five stations, each targeting a different ecological skill set:
Distinguishing biotic and abiotic factors
Using a dichotomous key to identify organisms
Applying ecology vocabulary in a Wordle-style logic puzzle
Determining benefits and harms in symbiotic relationships
Interpreting ecology graphs to extract missing information
At each station, students use their answers to generate part of an escape code. The codes must be combined and formatted correctly to complete the challenge, reinforcing both content accuracy and attention to detail.
This activity is designed to:
assess understanding of major ecology concepts
require students to apply knowledge rather than recall definitions
integrate multiple ecology skills in a single task
function as a cumulative review or end-of-unit application
A teacher key is included to support efficient implementation. This lesson works well as an ecology unit review or as a synthesis activity before assessment.
Grade recommendation
Middle School — Grades 7–8 (Life Science / Ecology unit)
High School — Grade 9 (introductory Biology / Ecology)
To preview this escape room, click here.
Cross-Curricular Connections & Extensions
ELA / Literacy: Wordle-style vocabulary station and CER-style explanation prompts → supports informational reading, short-answer writing, and evidence-based claims.
Math: Graph interpretation, proportions (biomagnification), and basic data-reading skills at Station Five.
Computer Science / Digital Citizenship: Use of Google Forms for assessment — opportunity to teach form navigation, digital submission etiquette, and using online feedback.
Extension Ideas:
Have students design their own one-station mini-escape clue (assesses synthesis).
Expand Station Five into a data-analysis mini-lab (students graph raw data and write a CER).
Join the Lesson Laboratory and Teach for Tomorrow!
NGSS alignment
Middle School Performance Expectations
MS-LS2-1 — Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-2 — Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.
MS-LS2-3 — Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-4 — Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
MS-LS2-5 — Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Middle School Focus:
The activity supports analysis of food webs, succession, and biomagnification — all foundational ecology concepts emphasized in MS-LS2. Students identify cause-and-effect relationships in simulated ecosystems and justify their reasoning with data (Station 5)
High School Performance Expectations
HS-LS2-1 — Use mathematical and/or computational representations to support explanations of factors that affect carrying capacity of ecosystems at different scales.
HS-LS2-2 — Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.
HS-LS2-6 — Evaluate claims, evidence, and reasoning that the complex interactions in ecosystems maintain relatively consistent numbers and types of organisms under stable conditions, but changing conditions may result in a new ecosystem.
HS-LS2-7 — Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
HS-LS4-6 — Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity.
High School Focus:
For 9th-grade biology, this escape room can serve as an introductory modeling and systems-thinking activity. Students interpret data on population changes, apply reasoning about biodiversity and stability, and use simple quantitative reasoning (via graphs and patterns) to model carrying capacity and trophic interactions.
Science & Engineering Practices (SEPs) — used in the escape room:
Developing and using models (dichotomous key, decoding tools).
Analyzing and interpreting data (Station Five graphs, biomass/biomagnification questions).
Constructing explanations & engaging in argument from evidence (vocabulary CER and interpretation tasks).
Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) emphasized:
Systems and system models (food chains/webs, ecosystem as system).
Cause and effect (how changes in one population affect another; pollution/biomagnification implications).
Patterns (recognizing succession stages, energy loss up trophic levels)
Common Core
RST.6–8.1 / RST.9–10.1 — cite evidence from prompts or graphs to answer questions.