Escape the Island

About

Teams are stranded on an island. To escape they must spot a passing ship and send it a signal. While they wait, they need to adapt to island life to survive.

The island represented on a tablet, is divided into nine zones. In each zone they are faced with a series of challenges focusing on different aspects of island survival including water, weather, first aid, building shelters, signalling and the like. Items washed up on the shore will help them in answering the challenges. Completing the challenges successfully will give them vital survival skills.

Teams need to gain enough knowledge of each aspect in order to survive. Too much time in a zone and they will lose time to gain knowledge of other survival techniques. Too little time and they will not gain the vital knowledge they require. Once they leave a zone they cannot return.

Teams eventually determine the name of the ship and when it will be passing. Successful teams signal the ship and are rescued. The team with the most points is declared the winner.

Learning Outcomes

To survive the island teams must develop a strategy and apply it with agility. Knowing when to move to the next zone and when to linger also requires active communication and consensus decision making. Teams have fun learning to learn together, gaining knowledge of real survival skills. Limited time and resources put team dynamics to the test challenging them to look for opportunity.

Each zone allows the allocation of tasks to specific team members so they can play to strengths for the overall benefit of the team. Flexible in its approach Escape the Island can be designed for a one-hour session or a more in depth team development game over 3 hours.