While supervising the fabrication shops in the Architecture, Art, and Planning department at Cornell University, I organized workshops with the intention to teach students to utilize the wealth of tools at their disposal. With a simple assignment --requiring each student to make a box --with the only constraint being that they use two materials (one cut, and one cast), the students were able to learn the capabilities of the two shops, how a variety of materials perform, the benefits of rapid prototyping when working iteratively, and that limits more often than not encourage alternative problem solving rather than actually stifle it.
I worked alongside the class on the same assignment, and had them make suggestions as to what my box should contain. The class decided upon a broken eggshell, which I entertained, and turned my box into a performative instrument with a similar composite shell structure.
The materials I was assigned by the students were (urethane) rubber and wood, and over the course of the class I iterated on a number of joint and panel designs using both analog/digital facilities, cast/cut materials before creating a finished piece.