Club introduces competition requiring logic and pop culture knowledge.

During the week of Sept. 30, teams of students will scour the campus at lunch in the first annual Puzzle Hunt hosted by the Math and Science Club. There will be eight puzzles total, relased in four sets of two. The first two puzzles was revealed at lunch on Sept. 30 in room D103.

“[The Puzzle Hunt is] just for fun,” co-President senior Prem Nair said. “Normally we don’t have a major activity that we necessarily do besides the competitions. Everything has generally been outside of school besides our lectures.”

Each puzzle will be an encryption of a location on campus or a special keyword. A team of up to six people will need to use logic and pop culture knowledge to decipher the puzzle, and the answer will provide the location of the next puzzle. Once at the location, the team needs to say the keyword to unlock the next two puzzles.

To win, the team needs to be able to solve the last two puzzles in the shortest amount of time. The winning team will receive a $50 gift card and the second place team will receive $30 card.

According to the club’s Director of Operations junior Preetham Gujjula, the MVHS puzzle hunt was inspired by similar puzzle hunts organized at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University and Stanford University. However, the officers said that it is rare for high school to have their own puzzle hunt and that the MVHS is the only school in the district to have a school-wide hunt.

Since each puzzle requires logic and knowledge of pop culture rather than just math and science, Nair said, the club decided to open the activity to the entire school.

“I think the puzzles [are] interesting, as it allows you to use your logic and because it is not just math,” said sophomore Julianna Liu, Puzzle Hunt participant. “You have to draw from different aspects and subjects to solve puzzles, and you have to think.”