Mathematical jigsaw puzzle

Mathematical jigsaw puzzles are, at their simplest, the rectangular cards, dominoes, triangles or other shapes that fit together like jigsaws. The pieces of this jigsaw, when correctly put together, form equalities on their faces.

To use such a learning activity the teacher can compose a number of pairs of like equations and then print out all the shapes for the pupils to find the like equations and put the jigsaw together. There is a free software (Formulator Tarsia, ) helping teachers to prepare jigsaw learning activities.

Formulator Tarsia (known earlier as Jigsaw 2005) was initially published as part of the package of resources ‘’Improving learning in mathematics: challenges and strategies’’ received in 2006 by all English secondary schools from the DFES Standards Unit. Currently, Formulator Tarsia is reworked and released in the second version by its creators at Hermitech Laboratory in Ukraine.