Where's Rob & More

This vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVAvF0IQgxY

reminds me of a stunt I dreamed up and pulled off when I was an undergraduate at Montana State University. A friend of mine was into acting, and I was a teaching assistant in a 50-student-big writing class.

I raised the idea of creating a scenario for observation/reportive writing with my teacher, and she went for it. So what happened is this:

We were in the middle of class when Sheila knocked on the door, opened it, and looked hesitatingly in. I asked, "Can I help you?" as she was clearly interrupting the lesson.

Sheila said, "I left a book in this classroom, and I am looking for it."

I waved her in, and she began looking under desks and around the classroom. The students were a bit put off by her actions, so I stopped the lesson (although I was a TA, my instructor and mentor, bless her, let me do some teaching), and said, "Ok, what book are you looking for?"

Sheila replied, "I lost a psychology book here and it belongs to my professor so I really need to get it back."

"Everyone look under your desks," I said, and all of the students complied. There was a great rustling of activity, but no book was found. (Of course, as it was all a fiction, but the students didn't know that.)

Sheila then said, "I know I left it here. I think someone is stealing it, probably to sell back at the bookstore!"

This did not go over well with the students, and they began to protest.

Fearing an uprising, I forcefully ushered Sheila out the door.

The students, all 50 of them, clapped.

Calming them down, I said, "The campus police will probably be investigating this incident, so we need to file a report. Here is some paper. Please describe the person you saw and what she said and did."

We had made a point of having Sheila wear a bandana and some other striking items, and the students were given points based on their ability to recall these details.

While the students were writing I went outside the classroom and talked to Sheila. She was worried about her "performance", but when I brought her back inside the classroom and told the students it was all an elaborate set-up, they applauded her.

I tried the same thing again several times, with different results, but ended it based on safety concerns . . .