I'd have my students reverse engineer banknotes and license
plates: And then I'd serve them up plain … … and ask the
students to: - determine the elements that comprised the
banknote or license plate (and, in the case, of banknotes, there
are usually a lot of elements — historical figures, state birds,
even the color scheme matters) - speculate on what country/state
the banknote/plate belongs to. - explain each element in the
context of its country/state. I'm just armchair quarterbacking
here, though.