Yes, a great lesson in making them larger. Resize may wish to be 'smalle'r. I think you should have discussed both. Especially appropriate for many I would think.
For those odd sizes (like the 16 inch block they talked about) you can always check and see if you can use a smaller block with sashing between the blocks... it may not work with all patterns but it will with a lot of them! Or add a thin board after joining the blocks...