Code Week in Limoges: a sabotage mission

Publication date: October 15, 2018

On the occasion of the European Code Week, MuseomixLIM and Limoges Resistance Museum have teamed up to create family escape room from 7 to 99 years old.

As a resistant, you accept a sabotage mission. The scenario helps you to visit the museum in quest for clues and proposes to solve puzzles based on discovering and practicing various computer science activities (cryptography, binary number system, algorithms with Thymio and Makey-Makey).

This French Code Week event took place on the 7 October 2018 with about 50 children and adults who decrypted messages, programmed a Rat-Robot and found the explosives’ codes.

The first puzzle is a Caesar code decryption.The message also indicates the locations of  clues scattered around the first museum show room.

But the clues are sequences of bits. The second puzzle focuses on converting binary code into decimal numbers so that visitors can discover the right dates to commit two acts of sabotage.

These two days are also translated into series of instructions to visually program our Rat-Robot (Thymio transformed into a rat). By reaching two specific positions, the Rat-Robot brings back two numbered  packages of Dynamite to prepare the explosive charges.

Be careful, only 2 numbers are right to blow up the bomb (a Makey-makey system). Your team need to be really connected to success.

Finally original swags from the Museum, CodeWeek and MuseomixLim are collected by unlocking a trunk.

Mission accomplished:  the enemy’s advance was prevented, Limoges was liberated and teams are happy.

Big thanks to the  Limoges Resistance Museum for the great welcome, and see you soon for new digital experiences.

Key figures :

• About 50 participants in 15 teams (71% adults and 29%  children from 5 to
  12 years)
• Duration : 1 hour
• Puzzles are really appreciated, especially the bomb explosion (with
  Makey-Makey) and the binary code (with specific binary number cards to
  convert in a fun and easy way)
• The +: Fun and original activities which requires reflection,
• The -:  Length of the first message to decrypt and waiting time to begin
  the escape room (to regulate the flow of participants)
• 61% of teams first visit the Resistance Museum and everyone wants
  to come back