The year is 1819. The place is an abandoned cabin north of Mountain Valley Village. There’s been news that Ona Ozone (me) has gone missing and know one knows why and where she’s been taken. It’s now up to the detectives (Alex and you) to help find the missing Ozone and return Pho Phosphorus’ (Emerson) lost love. Can you solve the mystery intime and find Ona before psycho Ali Aluminum (Taylor) finds you?

Ona Ozone and Pho Phosphorus

This years exhibition was rather different from the one we did last year. Last winter, we as grade eights were paired with the grade nines to create a Star Wars themed experience that allowed guests to take a scientific and artistic look at the all time popular film series. This year as grade nines, we were split into groups of four. Mine included myself, Emerson, Taylor and Alex. Although the exhibition was a project on its own, the pre-exhibition process began with Taylor and I being a pair and Emerson and Alex being a separate group. We than created a short animated video (which you can read about and view in the link above) about two chemicals forming a bond and therefore a chemical reaction. This, we called, ChemicalStories.

Ali Aluminum

From there our groups of two were made into a group of four or more. That’s when Emerson and Alex joined Taylor and me. Our task was to combine our two stories and create one epic tale which would then be transformed into an immersive experience. This meant hours of decorating a classroom to make it seem like part of our story. This process wasn’t at all fast or easy and our team actually fell apart early in the decorating process. This was due to us not listening to each other and trying to talk over one another. Lucky for us, after a brief team meeting, we pulled it off and our room turned out to be a fun interactive experience that was both exciting and mildly scary!

Now, before diving nose deep into the actual exhibition, let’s rewind a bit and go to the planning stages when the story was created. The two boys had written a love story using the chemicals aluminum and phosphorus and Taylor and I used humans to represent our chemicals, ozone and einsteinium. My team brainstormed many stories and ideas before deciding on a murder mystery and love story. We combined characters and decided to base this story off of Ali and Pho which were originally characters from Emerson and Alex’s story and Ona from our story. The writing process came together well and while I was writing the book, Taylor and Emerson started to draw up our room plan for the night of the exhibition.

Once the story had been written and approved, my team and I gathered together to see what each person would bring. We also decided on food and who would play what character as well as costumes.

A few days prior to the exhibition, Emerson and Taylor came over to my place to bake some food for the big night. This would be placed on a decorative table in the Center of our room and guests would be able to enjoy the snacks. The three of us decided to make a batch of brownies and many many batches of shortbread cookies. Below are a few images of our fun day baking!

It was finally the day of the exhibition and I walked into the classroom to a big surprise. A giant dog cage was waiting for me in the Center of the room and, turns out, I would have to sit inside it and pretend to be trapped in it for about 3 hours! Of course I’d get breaks, but still! The humiliation and discomfort it’ll bring.

Taylor setting up the outside door and entryway

Emerson adding some cobwebs to lamps and things

Alex hanging with his new friend

Me putting some snow on the window sill

The room set up went fairly well thanks to everyone for bringing the things they were told to bring. Once the lights were shut off and the candles turned on, you were really transformed into the world of Mountain Valley. With the creepy music constantly playing throughout the night, the room really held a special magical effect on its audience.

I always think the worst part of things is the cleanup. Once the last guest departed, the room instantly fell apart. Paper was torn, the lights switched on, music stopped and the fake snow was thrown back into its packaging. I was very proud to be the first room cleaned up. With the final piece of tape undone and the last paper thrown away, the scary haunted cabine slowly turned back into a not so scary classroom.

Cleaning up

Overall, the night was really fun and I got the chance to see different immersive rooms from my classmates as well as the grade 8 booths about religion and the grade 11s walk through of the 1800s. Although at first, we had a few difficulties regarding us listening to one another, the story line, room, decor and experience went really well! My group really came together as a team to make this such a great project for everyone. Everyone did their part and tried their best no matter the circumstance. Alex brought in the lamps and snow, Emerson found the music, Taylor stuck to costumes and I brought in all the props as promised I would. The night was truly a good reflection of the hard work and dedication we all put into this project. There was nothing about the night I would change…well…except perhaps, next time, I’d rather not sit in a cage😂