Tarsia

Tarsia is a software tool used to create educational puzzles known as Tarsia puzzles. The puzzles are built from interlocking pieces that carry questions and answers; students fit the pieces together so that each question aligns with its correct answer. The activity is designed to promote active learning, self-checking, and collaborative problem solving in classrooms.

Teachers enter pairs or triples of items, choose a puzzle template, and generate a printable worksheet that includes the puzzle and a solution key. Tarsia provides multiple layouts, including domino-like, triangular, and rectangular tessellations, allowing customization of the number of items and the level of difficulty. The outputs can be printed or saved as PDFs for classroom use or student assignments.

Common subjects for Tarsia puzzles include mathematics, science terminology, vocabulary building, and language learning. Because each puzzle requires matching related items, students practice recall and understanding while the teacher can quickly assess progress using the included answer key. The tool is frequently used for revision, assessment preparation, and introducing new concepts in a game-like format, supporting individual work as well as small-group activities.

Developed for educational use, Tarsia has been widely adopted in schools and universities and is distributed through educational resource networks. It is designed to be easy to adopt in typical classroom settings and can be integrated into lesson planning as a flexible, printable activity generator.