I am in a shop class at school. I talked to my teacher about me building an illusion in the class. He wanted ideas about building large parlour or small stage sized props.
It sounds like a good idea, but I don't want to give away too much about the secrets of magic. If this sounds like a good idea, what are some possible tricks that we could build? We have a small class; less than 20 people will be building. Any suggestions?
-Tyler

If you can find a way to build the base at home, or anyway away from the class, stack of boxes is fairly easy to build. There are all sorts of things you could do, but you'd be giving the secret away to the class, and more importantly the teacher, who might pass the idea on to other classes. Be careful.

I used to have a nosey neighbor who was always trying to ferret out magic secrets. Sometimes I had to work with my garage door closed.

How about a Die Box? It's easy to build and there are no secrets your really giving away since it's a gag type prop.

How about a Tear Apart Vanish box? The frames can all be made in the shop class, but you take the front frame home to add the gimmick in secret. Make the gimmick so that it is easily removable (hint: Velcro!). Then bring it back in to class to perform the trick everyone helped you build. They will have no idea how it is done (assuming you perform it correctly) and you can ditch the removable gimmick as you tear out the remains of the newspaper from the frames.

There are many builds you can do that unless they know how exactly how the assistant fits into the box. Even in constructing it there is no need to give that away. Even a snake basket can be largely inspected without a hint of suspicion.

Cutting a girl in sixths would be a good one.