Gamification

 We had to create an escape room online something along those lines. Each of us created a different puzzle which was a little hard since we are a five-person group but we figured it out. Anyone who knew what they wanted to do chose their’s first and I had the idea of a word search but I was thinking about how to make that more of a puzzle instead of just an activity. I used Puzzlemaker Discovery Education which had a word search with a hidden message feature but in the end, I didn’t use it because I want to my word search to be with book titles. So I found other word searches that offered me the chance to put phrases but no hidden message feature. Then I found a video online on how to do a word search and make it interactive for students plus put a hidden message I followed the same concept that they did. If you would like to see it, it is called How to make an interactive word search puzzle in Google Jamboard. I feel like I just made it more difficult for myself in sticking to putting book titles into the word search instead of using other words that were not phrases. Since I did that I kind of stressed myself out but you know I kind of do that a lot so it's normal I decided to devote my day off to this word search and not think about it till about until after. Then I realized I forgot to write this blog post so this is more of a reflection of how it went I think at the moment I wouldn’t say I would do it again but looking I’m like yes I would do it but probably not that often. We figured out five different puzzles to do a crossword, memory match, trivia with a logic puzzle, word search with a hidden message, and a cipher. That was the most exciting part that we figured out five different puzzles to do without having to overlap. Everyone did their part as well as updated one another when they had finished their puzzle.

In any case, this would be a fun thing to promote to teens in a public library space. It would be seen as a passive thing or even as a live program event a mini breakout space at the library that people can do throughout the day. From there see if they liked it and if they would like to continue doing it.

Here is an image of the word search I created it is a word search of book titles from the Read for a Lifetime and the Abe Lincoln Book Award the nominees from this year and years past as well as past winners.