[JonathonW]

First project in my high school photography class (before we even touched anything having to do with a film camera) was to make and use a pinhole camera— body made of cardboard and tape, “lens” a piece of foil with a hole in it, and “film” a 4x5 bit of photo paper.

It’s a great way both to explain the whole premise behind photography (your fancy camera and lens is just an elaborate way to project an image onto a bit of light-sensitive stuff that you otherwise keep in the dark) and to give students some early hands-on experience developing prints without all the intervening steps involved in making a print from film.