Why did Spanish influence decline in the Philippines? Escape Room Activity

The Key Question in this lesson is ‘why did Spanish decline in the Philippines?’ and it is fully resourced.
The lesson begins with a Who Wants to be a Millionaire starter activity in which student are invited to place in order (fastest finger first) the duration of occupancy of the British, Japanese, Americans, and Spanish.
They are then introduced to a six-pointed hexagon with the key reasons for the decline of the Spanish Empire in the Philippines (these include conditions under Spanish rule, maritime competition, the opening of the Suez Canal, the growth of Filipino resistance, Moro rebellions, and the Spanish-American War.
After this starter activity the class are then introduced to their aims and objectives which are graduated (all will/some will/most will).
The class then begin their main activity which is an Escape Room activity. There are six tasks which can be placed in a padlocked box. Students can use internet devices or own knowledge to figure out the clues. For example, the first clue is when did Magellan die? The answer is 1521 so a padlock can be coded for this. It is a lot of fun but if time is against you, you can of course just print the clues back-to-back and ask students to reveal their answers on paper/mini whiteboards. Once they have cracked the code, they then have an activity to answer which relates to the six key reasons on the hexagon and they complete these activities on the worksheet provided (works best when printed on A3).
When students have cracked all six boxes there is a ‘boss level’ box in which they are invited to explain the reasons and offer a conclusion.
The lesson concludes with a plenary in which they are required to vote on the main reason using a hexagon (six reasons, they place a post-it note to write their key explanation/factor down. The closer to the centre the more important they see it to be.)
There is a written piece of homework set also.
The emergence of the Philippines as an independent nation is of massive importance to the world and I take great pride in this lesson because it helps students understand some of the key reasons for this. It is written in UK-English and pitched at high achieving Year 7-9 high school students.