Daily Facts
History
The puzzle: when homework became a game (by accident)
In 1760, mapmaker John Spilsbury turned a chore into fun without meaning to: he cut a map of Europe into pieces so his students could learn geography… by putting it back together. Not out of pedagogical brilliance, but because he was tired of repeating the same lessons.
Spilsbury glued a map onto a wooden board and carved along the borders with a knife. Once scrambled, the pieces had to be reassembled to recreate the map. Students, thinking they were playing, memorized country shapes without realizing it. The idea caught on: English schools adopted this “dissected puzzle” to teach geography, history, and even botany.
Source: fr.wikipedia.org
A fact like this one every morning
Over 1,500 facts, quizzes to test yourself and a home screen widget.