Case Study: The Hackley School

The Hackley School is a K-12 private school in Tarrytown, New York. Over the past few years, the first day back from winter break has become a “Wellness Day” — a day to focus on the body and the mind. In 2020, for the middle-school students and the upper-school students, that took the form of running around the school solving puzzles supplied by Eric Berlin.

Building on the wellness theme, Eric created a suite of puzzles called “Paging Dr. Enigma!” Solvers were transformed into doctors, and the school became a hospital. Six different patients needed to be diagnosed with an amusingly punny malady, which could be accomplished by solving that patient’s puzzle. (For example, a Mechanic had a bad case of ELBOW GREASE. And the Park Ranger was afflicted with MOSQUI-TOES.)

As always, Eric made use of the school’s environment when planning out his puzzles. The Politician’s puzzle, for example, was laid out along the school’s indoor track — the solvers would help him literally “run for office.” The Musician’s puzzle required identifying the sounds of various musical instruments, matching them to the actual instruments laid out in the room.

Because the event was run twice in succession — once for younger solvers and once for older solvers — Eric created two versions of several puzzles, adjusting the difficulty to match its audience. In both cases, solvers matched each affliction to a “diagnosis code.” The six diagnosis codes then formed one final puzzle, resulting in time-tested medical advice: TELL THEM TO EAT AN APPLE A DAY.