Steps to making a world cube puzzle:

1. Open up a new map in ArcMap
(For a 60 Day ArcMap trial visit http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-desktopState-wide. Site licenses for K-12 are available for certain states. Illinois teachers may apply for an ArcMap license at https://illinoised.maps.arcgis.com/home/)
2. Choose a world basemap (I chose the National Geographic basemap)
3. Change the map projection to “Cube” (world)
4. Export the map in JPG format
5. Open the image and take six perfectly square screen shots of the world map
6. Visit the Image Cube website https://www.imagecu.be/ and follow the directions for making your cube (hint: rename your six world images in the order you’d like them to appear on the cube)
7. Be sure to add map credits when posting to your website!

Now, try making your own! www.imagecu.be

Video directions for making a world cube:

Applications for Education
1. Add a fun activity to a map projection lesson
2. Create an actual world cube by printing out a world map with a Cube (world) projection, cutting it out and folding it into a cube
3. Create a world cube puzzle on www.imagecu.be
Note to teachers: Your students may create their world cube on www.imagecu.be, scramble it and try to solve without sharing or saving it. Since sharing the cube creation requires logging in using a Twitter or Facebook account you might ask that they don’t share their cube. Of course, you could create a world map puzzle in advance. You could then give the link to your puzzle to your students for a fun challenging activity.