Entermission GATE

Unique enrichment experiences are offered as part of the College's Gifted and Talented Program (GATE). One such experience was when some of our Senior GATE students were able to experience Virtual Reality Simulations at Entermission in Melbourne's CBD. Students were virtually placed on board a space station where they learn to collaborate to solve complex situational problems. Read the interview between Ms H. Ruhnau and Celina W. (Year 7) to learn more:

“What did you learn from the VR Escape mission?”

“From the VR escape room, I learnt the importance of persistence and communication. During one of the multiple stages of the mission, our team was stuck. We couldn’t find out how to use the abilities to pass through. However, after a lot of trial and error two of us were able to find out how and when to use the two abilities. The two of us could not complete the puzzle by ourselves though. So, through communication we were able to teach our team members how to use the skills and in turn, complete the puzzle.”

“How would you rate the VR experience – can you elaborate?”

“I would rate the VR experience a 5/5. This is because I have never done an escape room before and I enjoyed doing something new. The theme of space was an interesting one, and VR brought the whole thing to life. This was a real game-changer, especially as we got to move through space at one point. We could also feel the urgency one would feel when actually repairing the space station, which made the whole thing much more lifelike. The staff were also very helpful and friendly, providing hints when we needed prodding in the right direction.”

“What did you do and how were you challenged with the problem-solving activity?”

“After putting on our headsets, we were introduced to the aim of the game; to fix the space station. We controlled avatars and only had an hour. To begin with, we had to teleport to the power room. This alone probably took a while, because we couldn’t find the right button. Eventually, we found it, causing our true problems to begin. This was probably the hardest part of the mission. We had to use telekinesis to move the batteries into their correct slots, while robots flew around preventing us. Even after we used our lasers to blow them up, we still couldn’t figure out the telekinesis. I found this odd because every time I grabbed it, it would drift to the side, not to the slot. It was also annoying that a red, circled letter kept appearing each time too. Later I noticed that the letter moved with my head, and where the letter was, the battery drifted towards. And so, we succeeded in that part of the mission. After that we had to teleport out of the power room because being so close to the working engine would kill us. But the teleportation didn’t work. We each became stuck behind a different door, waiting for one team member to unfreeze the valve on the other side. Then we entered a large, domed room with glowing orbs floating around. We each absorbed the orb’s power and placed it onto a stand. There we were each given a shape that we had to move to form a triangle altogether. Suddenly, a mysterious pyramid arose, and we each used our telekinetic powers after much debate between using lasers or telekinesis. This caused the space station to explode, and we found ourselves in space with limited oxygen. After we made our way into the two escape pods, we were finally able to celebrate our success.”

“Thank you, Celina, this was very insightful!”