Student Inspired To Learn History By Creating Rubik's Cube Mosaic Of Anne Frank

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - The Rubik's Cube has been puzzling people for decades. But when a Wisconsin high school student spotted one in his school's library, he learned an impressive skill and a little history along the way.

Most people try to solve the 3-D combination puzzle by getting one color on each side, but that's not what Sparta High School student Johnathan Pipkin did in 2019.

Inspired by "You Can Do the Cube," an ongoing program that provides resources to schools to teach STEM/STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) standards and "21st century skills" by using the Rubik's Cube, Pipkin created a cube mosaic picture of Anne Frank, one of the most prominent victims of The Holocaust.

"I thought it would be pretty neat to do this," he told CBS affiliate WKBT back then.

Cheri Zahasky, director for the library media center at Sparta High, had purchased a kit from YouCanDotheCube.com that came with 100 Rubik's Cubes to create mosaics from templates or personalized designs, including Anne Frank.

Pipkin found the diagrams in the library's Makerspace, which staff and students call STEAM Room.

"Makerspace is someplace where you have things that kids can do to make or create, something to learn, something new," Zahasky said.

"I didn't know too much about Anne Frank before coming in here," said Pipkin. "Since building it, I've done research about her, just to see why she would be a picture to select."

Anne Frank wrote in her diary about living her life in hiding from the Nazis during World War II. She later died in a concentration camp. Frank's diary was published posthumously in 1947 and was eventually translated into more than 60 languages.

Pipkin managed to put the entire piece together in just three hours over three days, learning the story behind the image along the way.

"She's gone through a lot of stuff. She's gone through day-by-day fear, stuff that I couldn't even imagine," he said.