Yesterday we wrote about our experiences in the Espionage adventure at 5 Wits at Patriot’s Place in Foxboro. As much fun as Espionage was, a lot of us liked 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea even more!
If you’ve never heard of it before, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a book written by Jules Verne. There have been numerous movies based upon the book. We had a chance at 5 Wits to explore the Jules Verne Museum where we were able to see various paintings, models, and designs based upon the book. When one of the students was looking at one of the paintings though, the painting fell over showing a hidden wheel! When we turned the wheel, it opened a hidden door behind another one of the paintings!
The door led us into an elevator. As we got inside, the doors closed and water starting filling in all around us! We were trapped with nowhere to go but down. Once the elevator stopped and we were finally able to get out, we found ourselves in the ship of Captain Nemo, the captain that Jules Verne had written about in the story. It turns out the story was true!
Once we made it into Captain Nemo’s library, we had no way out. We listened to a phonograph and found out we had to find some locations of Captain Nemo’s trip on a map. When we found the locations, lights lit up on the map. Once we found them all, the map disappeared and we found out the lights represented musical notes! We played the musical notes on a piano and it opened the next door!
We found ourselves in the engine room but the engine wasn’t working. In order to power it up, we had to get the flow of electricity working by lining up different sized tubes in holes of different depths so they were all even. When we got that done, we then had to take different sized gears and fit them onto the wall to make the gears that were already in place turn. We worked together really well to get both goals accomplished!
This still didn’t lead us to an escape from the ship though. Instead, we ended up in Captain Nemo’s laboratory. There were cylinders of different colored liquid and to get out, we had to take crates with test tubes in them and figure out how to make each cylinder drain into a graduated cylinder that was marked with a certain color. We had to try out all different crates and flip them around but we finally found the right fit and all the liquid started draining out!
This brought us to the final two rooms. In the first one, we were in the bridge of the ship. We had to turn on each part of a pump in the correct order so we could pump water out of the diving chamber. It took three turns before we were able to pump everything out. Once it was all pumped out, we were finally able to enter the diving chamber so we could head to the surface. There were leaky pipes everywhere because of the water that had been in there but we were finally on our way home, or so we thought! As we began to rise to the surface, a giant squid attacked us! We had to rush to the center and charge up a cord by turning wheels really quickly. Once we did so, we touched the cord to the side of the chamber and the squid swam away! Now we were finally on our way. We reached the surface and ended our journey on board Captain Nemo’s ship.
Check out the trailer that 5 Wits put together for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and then see a slideshow of all our pictures from our field trip below (including pictures of us in front of Gillette Stadium where the New England Patriot’s play)!
Dear Mr. Avery,
I agree that 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was more fun. Espionage was fun, but very short and I wasn’t sure exactly how we solved the mission. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was more captivating and I knew what was going on even though it was a nice challenge. My favorite part was when we had to do the musical sequence because I was the only one who knew how to play the piano in that group.What was your favorite part?
Sincerely,
Emily B.
Dear Mr. Avery,
Seeing you guys today made me realize how much I truly miss getting to walk into your classrooms everyday. 7th grade is so much different than all the years past and was a big transition. Also, during step up day today we were told how 8th grade is so much like the High school. It seems like the years keep flying by. Why do I have to grow up? I remember the first day of 4th grade when I met you and instantly I knew it was going to be a good year. Thank you for everything and making me mentally and physically prepared for my first year of middle school. I hope to come to your classroom next week to speak to all of the new-coming 7th graders. They have no reason to be scared! If you remember, I was one of the students that was PETRIFIED for the 7th grade! Instantly when I walked in homeroom on the first day, I realized there was nothing to be scared about and that it was just step up day that was overwhelming. I miss you guys dearly and hope to see you soon!
Sincerely,
Alyxandra
(Your #1 Steelers fan)
Dear Mr. Avery, I think I would rather try the 20,000 leagues under the sea exhibit, because I did them both and that one was alot more fun than the other Espionage one.
Sincerely,
Marshall
Hello Mr. Avery and class,
Now I’ve read the posts on both 5 Wits adventures, I would find it hard to choose if I could only experience one. I know I would like to try both adventures but, living near the sea and knowing the works of Jules Verne, I would try 20,000 Leagues if I had the choice.
It’s a great distance from here to Massachusetts. I can only hope 5 Wits might appear in Australia.
Ross Mannell
Teacher (retired), N.S.W., Australia