Tobin Science logoTobinScience Play
Free 3D waves adventure S8P4 · SPS9

Signal Lost

A 3D waves adventure for 8th grade and high school physical science

A science adventure on the Moon. Tycho Relay has gone dark, its crew is missing, and the only way to bring the base back is to master how light and sound waves behave.

“The base is dark. The crew is gone. One signal keeps repeating.”

8 domes · 3 activities eachRover racesStory + side questsNo accountsAny Chromebook
Tycho Relay lunar base at night, seen from the landing pad

Pick your course

This choice sets your whole world — the standard, the puzzles and the Teacher Data page.

Inside the Control Room dome
Georgia GSE · S8P4

8th Grade Physical Science

Light and sound, the electromagnetic spectrum and energy, how waves bounce, bend, pass through and get absorbed, speed in different materials, and what lenses do.

Start the 8th grade game →
Inside the Water Farm dome
Georgia GSE · SPS9

High School Physical Science

Wave properties and energy, electromagnetic versus mechanical waves, reflection, refraction, interference and diffraction, waves in different media, and the Doppler effect.

Start the high school game →

You have a saved game on this device.

Continue my game →
How every dome works

Learn it. Use it in the base. Prove it.

Each of the eight domes teaches one wave idea three different ways, so nothing is a worksheet in disguise and nothing repeats.

1

Learn at the board

A hands-on puzzle board — slide, tune, aim, sort — with a hint after a miss and a Field Guide card after two. The science is in the doing.

2

Walk it in the dome

Then the same idea is built into the room: crank a wave wall, steer a laser through a mirror maze, listen round a corner, race sound through pipes.

3

Certify — no hints

A certification run with fresh problems. Pass it and the dome comes back online, a fragment of the crew's last message plays, and the base gets a little brighter.

Inside the base

A whole moon to explore

Eight domesSilence Line, The Array, Control Room, Water Farm, Shadow Corridor, Density Deck, Observatory and Workshop — one standard element each, in both courses.
Rover racesFree-steer courses out on the regolith plus standards races (Spectrum Sprint, Sonar Sprint, Doppler Dash) with medals and rover parts.
A story worth finishingCrew logs, side quests, rare anomalies, a seven-stage Relay rebuild that chains every skill, and the Storm Vault ending.
Coins and the DepotEarn Coins for every level; spend them on suits, helmets, rover paint and titles. Nothing in the shop skips a puzzle.
Teacher DataA printable report in the Concourse: levels passed, certifications, cards collected, time played — generated on the device, nothing uploaded.
Saves that travelProgress saves on the device and as a short code students can paste into any other computer.
Keyboard-only or keyboard + mouseEvery puzzle, menu and board can be played without a mouse. Touch works too.
Built for ChromebooksNo account, no install, no internet after the page loads. Press F for full screen.
Screens

Tycho Relay

The base from the ridge

The base from the ridge — eight domes round the Concourse ring

The Concourse ring

The Concourse — every dome door opens from here

Control Room dome

Control Room — amplitude, frequency, wavelength and energy

Water Farm dome

Water Farm — steer the laser through the mirror maze to the sensors

Standards

What students master

Georgia Standards of Excellence. Every dome is tagged with the element it builds, and the Teacher Data page reports progress element by element.

S8P4 · 8th Grade Physical Science

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to support the claim that electromagnetic (light) waves behave differently than mechanical (sound) waves.

  • a — similarities and differences between electromagnetic and mechanical waves
  • b — the electromagnetic spectrum and energy
  • c — a device that applies a band of the spectrum (communication, medical, security)
  • d — how light and sound are reflected, refracted, absorbed, diffracted or transmitted
  • e — density of the medium and wave speed
  • f — frequency, amplitude, wavelength and energy
  • g — lenses, image formation and their uses
SPS9 · High School Physical Science

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to explain the properties of waves.

  • a — wavelength, frequency and energy in electromagnetic waves; amplitude and energy in mechanical waves
  • b — electromagnetic versus mechanical waves
  • c — reflection, refraction, interference and diffraction from evidence
  • d — how different media change the speed of sound and light
  • e — the Doppler effect in sound
For teachers

Assign it in one link

How it runs in a classroom

  • Students open the link for their course; the game asks for a name and a suit, then the story starts. No account, nothing to install.
  • Roughly fifteen hours of play across the eight domes, races, quests and the Relay — stay ten minutes or a whole unit.
  • The Teacher Data sign in the Concourse prints a one-page report (or saves it as a PDF) with levels, certifications and time per standard element. Students can show it on screen or upload it to an assignment.
  • Progress lives on the student's device. A save code (it starts with SL1-) moves it to another computer.
  • A hint appears after a miss and a Field Guide card after two, so a student who is stuck is retaught, not stopped.

Links to paste

8th grade · tobinscience.com/signal-lost-play.html?mode=8th High school · tobinscience.com/signal-lost-play.html?mode=hs More free classroom tools →