While Spanish students study the words and phrases, Spanish teacher Lindsy Clark creates a twist to their daily studying.

Clark came up with an idea to put together a little black box covered in different varieties of locks. It made it impossible to break in without cracking each code. Students were given an hour to unlock the box. There were about five locks on each box. Once the box was unlocked, they were surprised by the reward.

The students were given one code at first, numbers in Spanish.

Once the first lock was unlocked, the students found another key. For the second key, students had to circle the most important ‘article’ in the sentence and it formed a number in Spanish leading towards making the students translate it to English to unlock another lock.

For the third code, inside an iPad the students were given to use, students had to scan a QR code. Once the QR code was scanned, it led them to a video of a student explaining her schedule. Once it revealed the directions, it revealed the directional lock code.

As the students unlocked the locks one by one, the anticipation grew higher wanting to know what was inside the boxes while they were unlocking the locks.

“Yes [it was challenging] but not necessarily frustrating because i’m not that very good at spanish,” Stone Medaris, sophomore, said. It was challenging in a way that this helped me become better.”

The fourth riddle was a little easier than the students thought it looked. Students learned their ‘-ar’ terms and had to correspond and change the ending of each word. With the unused words, it revealed the code to the next lock.

Once the fifth puzzle was put together, there were letters revealed on the pieces telling the students where the next clue was. For instance, some were inside a certain book and another would be under the teacher’s computer.

With the sixth puzzle, it had a tiny key to unlock another lock. But the puzzle also had students match up objects and their vocabulary. The puzzle then revealed the code to unlock the next lock.

“We were learning how to take all of our vocab and verbs. We do that and we put it together into a conversation and solving puzzles,” Medaris said. “[The purpose was] to become more familiar with our Spanish.”

For the seventh puzzle, they received a transparent paper with lines on it. They were able to combine the paper and hold it up to the light, revealing a number that unlocked the last code to the last lock.

The students all got really hyped up, only to reveal there was nothing in the box at all. “[I was expecting] a prize like candy or something,” Megan Emery, sophomore, said.

Clark was kind enough to reward the students with Mexican candy for their hard work that they pulled off. She told her students that there will be another project like this in the Spring.

“I liked it I wish she would do it more. It’s really challenging but in a fun way,” Emery said.