“SCREAM” Education

On Thursday, October 12, the Middle School for Boys Eighth-grade team took more than fifty members of the Class of ‘28 on a field trip to see the design thinking process behind one of the largest “haunted houses” in the world, the Erebus Haunted Attraction. They were the first private group ever to experience a behind-the-scenes look at the massive storytelling and engineering operation.

 

The trip was designed to provide an authentic, group experience complementing the students’ individual, project-based summative assessment during their study of American Romanticism and Gothic Literature.

 

Instead of taking a paper and pen test, students are creating their own STEAM-style (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) project, a visual story based on their interpretation of their choice of one of Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories or poems.

 

To see how professionals create visual stories, students visited with and heard from the owners of Erebus themselves. Opened seasonally, Erebus is a four-story, half-mile indoor walk-through haunted attraction located in Pontiac, Michigan. From 2005-2009 it held the Guinness World Record for the largest walk-through haunted attraction.

 

“Making of a Monster” is an all-new, behind the scenes walk-through tour of the attraction. With over 40 flat-screen TVs sharing the history and process of innovation and creation, students saw the design process firsthand. Exemplars provided students inspiration for when they create their own story experience in the MSB’s inaugural “Haunted Locker Room.”

 

For two weeks students will select a part of their story and recreate it for their section of the installation. Using the design process, students will create a setting and mood that emulates their story and connects with the theme of the experience they will build in the Dagbovie Gym in the Middle School for Boys.

 

The first Haunted Locker Room will be ready for visitors October 31!