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What do putting a jigsaw puzzle together and structuring a curriculum have in common? James Beane (1995) drew a connection between the two endeavors when he observed that as we begin to put a puzzle together, we often take a single piece and try to identify the portion of the puzzle to which it belongs. We place it in a spot to wait for adjacent pieces to be found. Then we connect sections and clusters of pieces, giving them directionality and location as we refer to the picture on the puzzle's box for guidance. "None of the pieces means anything taken alone; only when the pieces are put together do they mean something" (Beane 1995, p. 1). Putting a puzzle together without a picture is seen as a particularly challenging task and, at times, a frustrating experience.
This metaphor holds true in the mathematics classroom. Without meaningful links to the real world and other subjects, the pieces of the mathematics curriculum sometimes just do not seem to fit in the big picture. Beane (1995) goes on to say that this lack of coherence is the reason that students frequently inquire, "Why do we have to know this topic?" or "What does all of this mean?" Such comments signal that they cannot see the big picture. The project described in this article brought mathematics into the elementary school curriculum in a coherent package while linking it with the lives of children.
Geo-doll is a term that we coined to label our "geography dolls." The geo-doll project emerged from efforts to integrate children's literature and mathematics. Using stories from children's literature to generate mathematics lessons having direct connections with the story lines proved to be a successful approach (Karp et al. 1998). As we searched for appropriate children's literature in bookstores, we found corresponding dolls that spurred new ideas and approaches. By using dolls to represent some of the book characters, we were able to extend the links between characters who are risk takers and problem solvers to real-world settings.
We envisioned the dolls as a means to learn more about significant mathematical concepts and to relate those concepts to other disciplines, such as science, language arts, geography, and history. The demands of the ever-expanding elementary...