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Looking for creative campus scavenger hunt ideas for orientation week? Here is part 2 of 26 engaging activities universities can use during freshers week, campus welcome week, and college orientation events.
This article continues our guide to campus scavenger hunt ideas for orientation week. If you haven't read it yet, start with Part 1: Campus Exploration and Social Orientation Games.
Photo scavenger hunts are consistently among the most popular orientation week activities because they encourage creativity, generate shareable content, and give students an immediate visual record of their first days at university.
Students take selfies at iconic campus locations and submit them through a shared channel or app. The resulting gallery becomes a natural conversation starter and excellent user-generated content for your institution's social media.
Example Challenges
1. Mascot Statue Selfie
Take a team selfie with the campus mascot statue.
Task type: Image
2. Library Entrance Photo
Capture a team selfie outside the university library entrance.
Task type: Image
3. University Sign Selfie
Take a photo with the official university sign or welcome banner.
Task type: Image
Teams recreate funny, specific poses at university landmarks: jumping in front of the main sign, pretending to nap at the library entrance, striking a heroic pose by the founder's statue. Creates immediate shared humour between students who met hours ago.
Example Challenges
1. Founder Statue Pose
Strike a heroic pose next to the founder’s statue.
Task type: Judged Image
2. Campus Gate Jump Shot
Capture a jumping photo in front of the main campus gate.
Task type: Image
3. Team Pyramid Photo
Create a creative team pose or pyramid at the student centre.
Task type: Image
Students locate hidden mascot symbols, imagery, and references scattered across campus. Works especially well at universities with strong athletic identity, and can be extended into a full themed hunt for larger campus welcome week events.
Example Challenges
1. Mascot Logo Photo
Find a mascot logo on campus and upload a photo.
Task type: Image
2. Mascot Origin Question
What animal or symbol inspired the university mascot?
Task type: Text
3. Mascot Trivia Question
In which year was the mascot introduced?
Task type: Multiple Choice
Teams explore campus dining halls, cafés, and food courts, completing small challenges at each location. Practical, energising, and gives students a genuine preview of their everyday dining options during college orientation.
Example Challenges
1. Campus Café Photo
Upload a photo of your team at a campus café.
Task type: Image
2. Dining Hall Check-In
Check in at the main dining hall entrance.
Task type: Direction
3. Menu Trivia Question
Which dining hall offers vegetarian options daily?
Task type: Multiple Choice
Students visit the gym, sports fields, fitness centres, and recreation facilities. Getting students through the door during orientation is the single most effective way to boost gym membership, students who visit during freshers week are far more likely to sign up.
Example Challenges
1. Gym Entrance Selfie
Take a selfie at the main campus gym entrance.
Task type: Image
2. Basketball Court Check-In
Check in at the outdoor basketball court.
Task type: Direction
3. Recreation Trivia Question
Which sport facility is open 24 hours?
Task type: Multiple Choice
These college orientation activities blend learning with exploration, helping students understand the history, traditions, and character of their institution from the very first week.
Students uncover historical facts about the university: when it was founded, who its notable alumni are, what the oldest building on campus is. Students who understand their institution's story feel more connected to it and more likely to stay engaged throughout their degree.
Example Challenges
1. Oldest Building Photo
Upload a photo of the oldest building on campus.
Task type: Image
2. Founding Year Question
In what year was the university founded?
Task type: Integer
4. Famous Alumni Trivia
Which famous alumni studied here?
Task type: Multiple Choice
Participants learn about school traditions, chants, songs, and rituals through discovery rather than a presentation. Embedding traditions into a scavenger hunt makes them memorable in a way that a slide deck never could.
Example Challenges
1. School Chant Recording
Record your team performing the university chant.
Task type: Audio
2. Tradition Statue Photo
Take a photo at the statue where graduation photos are taken.
Task type: Image
3. Tradition Matching Game
Match university traditions to the year they started.
Task type: Matching Pairs
Students investigate campus legends and myths: "Is there really a tunnel under the main hall?", "Did a famous person once study here?" "What's the story behind that unusual statue?" Adds storytelling and humour to university orientation games while sparking genuine curiosity about campus history.
Example Challenges
1. Secret Tunnel Myth
Does a tunnel exist under the main hall?
Task type: Multiple Choice
2. Legendary Statue Photo
Upload a photo of the statue connected to a campus legend.
Task type: Image
3. Campus Myth Story
Share a campus myth you’ve heard from another student.
Task type: Text Share
Teams answer university-specific trivia questions at different locations around campus, a blend of knowledge challenge and physical exploration that suits academically competitive cohorts particularly well.
Example Challenges
1. Founder Question
Who founded the university?
Task type: Multiple Choice
2. Campus Record Question
How many students are enrolled at the university?
Task type: Text
3. Faculty Trivia Question
Which faculty building opened most recently?
Task type: Multiple Choice
Students scan QR codes placed across campus, each one unlocking the next clue or challenge. Easy to update each year without reprinting materials, and gives you data on which locations students actually visited, useful for refining future orientation programmes.
Example Challenges
1. Library QR Scan
Scan the QR code placed near the library entrance.
Task type: QRbarcode
2. Student Centre QR Scan
Scan the QR code inside the student centre.
Task type: QRbarcode
3. Hidden Clue QR Scan
Find and scan the hidden QR code near the campus garden.
Task type: QRbarcode
Students complete GPS-triggered challenges, photo submission missions, and knowledge tasks through the best scavenger hunt app. Real-time leaderboards keep energy high across a full afternoon, and automatic scoring removes the manual overhead of paper-based hunts entirely.
Example Challenges
1. Quad GPS Check-In
Check in at the main quad using GPS.
Task type: Direction
2. Sculpture Photo Mission
Upload a photo of your team next to the campus sculpture.
Task type: Image
3. Campus Knowledge Question
Which building houses the admissions office?
Task type: Multiple Choice
Instead of distributing paper clues or tracking results manually, scavenger hunt platforms allow students to receive missions on their phones, submit photos or answers, and track their team’s progress throughout the event.
When selecting a scavenger hunt app for college orientation activities, look for features that make large events easier to organize and manage.
A good campus scavenger hunt app should support:
These features help universities run engaging orientation week activities without needing a large number of staff managing the event.
Scavenger hunt app like PlayTours are designed specifically for interactive scavenger hunts and campus exploration games. Universities can easily create missions such as GPS check-ins, photo challenges, trivia questions, and puzzle tasks that students complete around campus.
This allows orientation teams to:
If you're planning orientation activities, you can experiment with building your own scavenger hunt missions using PlayTours. The platform lets you design tasks, add campus locations, and test the experience before running the event with students.
You can create a free account and try it here: https://admin.playtours.app/
That's it! If you need help, do email us at hello@playtours.app
