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Date: 11/17/2020
AGAWAM – From Nov. 23 to 27, the Agawam Public Library will be featuring Digital Escape Rooms created by them and other libraries.
One group of escape rooms will be solely dedicated to younger children while the other batch of escape rooms will be devoted to teen involvement.
According to Pamela Weingart, the children’s librarian at Agawam Public Library, the escape rooms will spotlight various themes that intertwine entertainment and educational development.
“It’s a website that we created with a bunch of online puzzles,” Weingart said. “There’s going to be two that I’ve put out from this library, and then there’s going to be links to other escape rooms that other libraries have put out, and give the permission to share.”
The two specific themes from Agawam Public Library include an “Imagination Island” and an “Alphabet of Numbers.” The former, according to Weingart, allows younger kids to “travel” to different houses around the island to solve different types of puzzles at each house. If you answer correctly, then you move to the next house.
For the “Alphabet of Numbers” theme, teens will have to “decode” the answers to different ocean-themed trivia questions.
“They [escape rooms] each have a theme … some are made for younger kids, and may have nursery rhymes,” said Weingart. “Some are made for older kids, and might have themes like ‘Stranger Things.’”
The escape room that’s based on “Stranger Things” was created by Manuel Garcia, who is a big fan of the show. This theme will be the featured digital escape room for older teens.
Other escape rooms were organized and constructed by libraries across the state and country. For example, Weingart told Reminder Publishing that the Salt Lake County Library out in Utah created “I-Spy Digital Scavenger Hunt,” which will be the featured escape room for little kids.
“All of the libraries in Massachusetts talk to each other on Listserv, and share ideas,” she said. “Through the sharing of ideas, we were all willing to share our digital escape rooms.”
The Agawam Public Library will set up the escape rooms through two different websites. One will feature the digital escape rooms for smaller children (http://www.agawamlibrary.org/children/), and another site will hold the escape rooms for older teens (https://www.agawamlibrary.org/teens/).
After completing the featured room, kids and teens will be allowed to participate in other puzzles from their allotted website. According to Weingart, around five other escape rooms will be listed throughout the four-day program.
“We’re doing that because some people are better at certain puzzles than other puzzles,” said Weingart. “By offering multiple escape rooms, we hope to offer one with the type of puzzles [children and teens] like.”
The four-day event hopes to provide kids and teens with some type of worthy educational experience, as in-person learning continues to be up in the air, and social interaction becomes less plausible.
Weingart encourages residents and students to also participate in the other programs at the library, such as the Grab n’ Go program. She believes that events such as digital escape rooms will simultaneously give parents a break and allow kids to be as engaged as possible in educational activities.
“It’s so important to participate in those because, in this time, it’s so easy to be isolated,” said Weingart. “But humans need interaction and stimulation, and parents sometimes need a break. So by providing safe and educational things for the kids to do, it can break up the monotony.”