A Spatial Kind of Magic

The world makes a bit more sense when we know where things are.  Books, maps and pictures are a wonderful way to expand our world but most of us learn best from hands-on involvement.  Manipulating things ourselves stimulates the spatial understanding and retention skills our ancestors relied on to survive.  It only makes sense.  This is how we will always learn to ride a bicycle, to cook, to solve equations or to play the guitar — by doing it.

Surprisingly, the whole idea of jigsaw puzzles was invented as a way to teach geography.  John Spilsbury (1739-1769), a British cartographer and engraver, produced the very first one in 1766.  That was an age of great exploration and discovery and his invention was immediately popular with people of all ages.  Jigsaw puzzles are still an entertaining and satisfying passtime.  They can still teach geography, too! 

PuzzleMap™ has been an on-going project to provide online geographic puzzles as a fun, self-directed learning experience.  One of our earliest puzzles of the US states was used in a 2017 Pilot Study conducted by the Washington State University College of Education.  It clearly had a positive impact!  A summary of the study results is available here.

Crystal Hayes, a 5th grade teacher involved in our early classroom trials, gave PuzzleMap this great review...

The COVID pandemic interrupted a follow-up effort to align puzzle content with core curriculum standards and to assess the best techniques for presenting PuzzleMap in the classroom and as an at-home study guide.  We have, however, continued working on functional improvements and new puzzle ideas.  We have also developed a clue-authoring tool that is currently being beta-tested by a group of Education undergrads as well as a focus group of elementary teachers and students.

A Few Legacy Puzzles

It's always good to look back at early efforts to see how far things have progressed.  These are examples of the original PuzzleMap software — before marketing it to schools had even been considered!

• US State Quarters

  This is the classic geographic puzzle enhanced by PuzzleMap's unique way of presenting information.  The clues for each state include its flag and an image of its commemorative quarter from the U.S. Mint.  There are some useful facts, too, all of which will help you learn where that state fits into the big picture.

• A Pint o'Ireland

  Any geographic area can become a PuzzleMap™.  This one explores the 32 traditional counties of Ireland.  To make it extra fun, each piece is associated with a local brewery and is illustrated with a bottle of their finest craft beer.  It's a challenging puzzle, though, so think responsibly!

• The Florida Gerrymander

  NOTE: This puzzle reflects the US House Districts and Members elected in Florida in 2018.  Although completely out of date now, it is still an interesting puzzle.  Voting trends were based on data from Cook Partisan Voting Index.  Boundaries have changed since then but this puzzle clearly shows how convoluted legislative districts can be!

• The Disappearing State of West Virginia

  There are 55 counties in West Virginia and 37 of them have lost population since 1950.  Solving this puzzle reveals the pattern of decline and uses color as a clue.  Counties that are more blue have suffered worse, those that are more gold are doing better.  Understanding the landscape will help put it together.