After considering a few possible models, we decided against somehow “creatively chastising” students; instead, we wanted to design a project that enabled student creativity while allowing them to talk about their own experiences with cheating, peer and parental pressure, college admission, etc.

But if cheating marks a disruption of the methods by which we evaluate learning, thereby prioritizing the evaluation (or the numeric representation of that evaluation) as the entryway into the next stage (college, job, and so on), the cube might annul this alliance altogether, detaching learning from any formal grading or academic track and creating–if only for a day–a space in which learning and teaching might again be exciting, creative acts.

A literal “temporary department” that could be easily disassembled and reassembled was an old idea of ours; realizing this in the school’s lobby as a collapsible 8′ x 8′ x 8′  PVC-piping cube, we prompted students passing by with the simple imperatives “Teach me about something you’re interested in” or “Tell me about something the person standing next to you might not know.”