Niamh in Year 12 explains more:

"I found the Cambridge Biology Challenge to be incredibly fun, and although my group and I found time management initially difficult, we soon learnt how to manage deadlines and balance the competition with our GCSEs. The questions themselves caused us to have to think about biology in new ways that we do not through school alone, for example, 'How is maths useful to biologists?'. In addition, we learnt vital skills like how to choose and understand scientific sources, and how to simplify and explain complex concepts for an audience.

The escape room focused on solving as many science-themed puzzles that you could in a time limit in order to get clues for the overarching mystery. It was very enjoyable, and focused me to think in different ways to find answers. In particular, I enjoyed the maths and logic themed puzzles, mainly because I found them easier.

Later, we were given a lecture on abiogenesis and the 'unknowables' of biology, in which we were encouraged to think differently and persevere through complex, seemingly unsolvable problems, even if they seem unknowable. By the end, we were given a series of clues to which we could piece together the overarching mystery started in the escape room, in order to potentially get invited back to a second escape room event. The staff present were also incredibly open and willing to talk to the students, regardless if the questions were about the university, the lecture, or just science in general. I felt that the entire event was incredibly exciting and had a very nice, creative atmosphere!"