Lost in the Stone Maze
Landlings: Landforms and Geography Adventure
The ground is shifting beneath your feet beneath Yosemite National Park.
A severe geological disturbance has displaced deep rock layers beneath the park, forcing an ancient inner stone system upward and overwriting the familiar surface environment. What remains is no longer recognizable as Yosemite. Forests, cliffs, and valleys have been replaced by a distorted stone labyrinth where natural systems that shape Earth’s surface are spiraling out of balance.
Inside this exposed maze, rock walls are cracking, arches are weakening, sand is shifting faster than expected, and underground passages are collapsing. Ari Raider has traced the disturbance to the Professor, who exploited the upheaval, disrupted landform systems, and concealed a powerful specimen inside a sealed Mystery Mine.
To escape the maze, students must journey through erosion corridors, volcanic chambers, and deep Earth passages, using real geography knowledge to restore balance to the forces that shape our planet and locate the hidden Mystery Mine.
This adventure transforms landforms and geography into an escape room style mission focused on slow change, powerful forces, and Earth’s dynamic surface.
Lost in the Stone Maze: Landlings Landforms and Geography Adventure
A story driven geography adventure where students explore landforms, investigate erosion, tectonics, and surface processes, and restore balance inside a vast stone maze by answering questions and unlocking the Mystery Mine.
Adventure Overview
Setting: The Stone Maze Complex
Story Hook: Ari Raider detects dangerous geological instability across a massive stone labyrinth.
Student Mission: Stabilize landform systems, navigate the maze, and unlock the Mystery Mine.
Mission Objective: Discover. Identify. Collect.
Grade Levels: 3–5
Time: 30–60 minutes
Lesson Plan
Objective: Students will explain how landforms form and change through erosion, weathering, tectonics, glaciers, and volcanic activity.
- Engage: Introduce landforms as features shaped by Earth’s forces.
- Explore: Students move through maze chambers by answering geography questions.
- Explain: Review erosion, mountains, plains, volcanoes, caves, glaciers, and plate movement.
- Extend: Connect landform changes to long timescales and Earth’s history.
- Evaluate: Use the Knowledge Check or discussion questions.
Teaching Guide
- Emphasize slow versus rapid Earth processes.
- Use the maze structure to reinforce cause and effect.
- Pause after each chamber to connect story events to vocabulary.
- Discuss how landscapes record Earth’s past.
- Optional: Students keep a “Landform Log” to track discoveries.
Vocabulary
- Erosion: The wearing away of rock by wind, water, or ice.
- Weathering: The breaking of rock into smaller pieces.
- Tectonic plates: Large sections of Earth’s crust that move slowly.
- Volcano: An opening where molten rock reaches the surface.
- Dune: A hill of sand shaped by wind.
- Glacier: A slow moving mass of ice.
- Continental drift: The slow movement of Earth’s plates over time.
Knowledge Check: Questions & Answers
Erosion and Elevation Gallery
-
Q: What causes erosion?
A: Wind, water, and ice -
Q: How do mountains often form?
A: When tectonic plates collide -
Q: How do hills and plains form?
A: Through erosion and sediment buildup
Fire and Sand Chamber
-
Q: How do volcanoes create new land?
A: Lava cools and hardens -
Q: How do sand dunes form?
A: Wind shapes sand -
Q: What is weathering?
A: The breaking of rock into smaller pieces
Deep Earth Passage
-
Q: How do caves form?
A: Water dissolves rock underground -
Q: What do glaciers create?
A: U-shaped valleys -
Q: What causes continents to move?
A: Continental drift
Discussion Questions
- Why do landforms change slowly over time?
- How do erosion and weathering work together?
- Why are some landscapes shaped by ice and others by wind?
- How can landforms tell us about Earth’s history?
- What landform changes could affect people today?
Classroom Transformation Ideas
- Create a stone maze using cardboard walls.
- Use tan and red paper to represent rock layers.
- Set up stations labeled Erosion, Fire, Ice, and Plates.
- Play subtle wind or desert ambience.
- Assign roles like “Geologist” or “Maze Navigator.”
DIY Excavation Activity
No-mess option:
- Hide a “landform card” in a cup.
- Cover with layered paper representing rock strata.
- Students excavate carefully and record observations.
- Discuss how scientists study land changes.
Standards Alignment
- Describe how landforms are shaped by Earth’s processes.
- Explain erosion, weathering, and deposition.
- Identify how tectonic movement affects land.
- Recognize how glaciers and volcanoes shape landscapes.
Free Printable Trading Cards
Download free printable trading cards that match Lost in the Stone Maze. Each card reinforces landform concepts used in the adventure.