interesting way so that the shape they made at the end would be interesting, different, more exciting ... than just a square. here are the ones that some of them came up with to show that the numbers could be arranged in an interesting way.
most of them, as you see, ended up with shapes that were not squares. those that did end up with an $8$ by $8$ square put the numbers in an interesting order into the shape.
when they did that they were then asked to made a tile [or frame] that was made up of four squares.
the numbers underneath the tile/frame were added up and recorded. the tile/frame 