Essential Physics Crossword Puzzle - 1. Science of Physics by The Lessons of Phyz © Dean Baird

This series of crossword puzzles is intended for first-course students. Topical terms constitute the core of the word list. They come from PASCO’s Essential Physics textbook. Additional terms (to fill in the grid space) lean toward science, but sometimes wander into simple mathematics, general knowledge, technology, pop culture, geography, initialisms and acronyms, Roman numerals, or randomness. The complete word list is shown below.

1. GENERAL
I created this crossword puzzle for use in high school courses. Because I was using crossword creator software, I chose to build as robust a crossword as possible. The more crosses, the better. The fewer blank spaces on the grid, the better. The physics topic vocabulary served as the core of the word list. I added “fair-game” terms to fill the gaps. While competing crosswords might have 20-30 words with a few dozen crosses, this one has over 100 words with over 150 word crosses.

2. PRINTABLE PDFS
The “Print” documents are PDFs meant to be photocopied (2-sided) and distributed to students. “Word List” (PDF and .rtf) documents are included if you wish to post them or distribute them to students. Your students; your call.

	•	Science of Physics Print 00 is a clean puzzle with no squares completed as hints.
	•	Science of Physics Print 10 has 10% of the squares prefilled as hints. The squares selected for filling was a random selection made by the software.
	•	Science of Physics Print 20 has 20% of the squares prefilled as hints. The squares selected for filling was a random selection made by the software.

I leave it to you to decide which version to use with which of your students.

3. UPLOADABLE HTML FILES (OPTIONAL)
If it suits your inclination, tech-savviness, resources, and use case, you may upload the included 01-Science_of_Physics folder to your own online webspace server. When you do so and provide the resulting URL to students, they can access and attempt to solve the puzzle online. The online version works best with a desktop or laptop screen. It is not optimized for phones. Here’s an online version of this puzzle so you can experience what an online version plays like:

https://phyz.org/crosswords/01-Science_of_Physics

Again, this high-tech option is available but not necessary. Most users will opt to use only the print versions, but it’s always nice to have options.

4. ANSWER KEY
The answer key document shows 
	•	the completed grid,
	•	the answers corresponding to each of the Across and Down clues

5. WORD LIST [bold = vocabulary words from the chapter]
ABUJA, ADAM, ADDITIVE, ALASKA, ALEPH, APRIL, ARMY, ATOM, ATOMIC, AURORA, BASEMENT, BORNEO, BOTOX, CELL, CHROMOSOME, COMB, CPU, CROSSWORD, CUBE, DEXY, DISCO, DOPEY, DRUM, EARTH, EINSTEIN, ELECTRON, ELEMENT, EMBRYO, ENERGY, ENGINEERING, EPA, ERROR, EV, EXPERIMENT, FORCE, FREQUENCY, GECKO, GOLD, HELIUM, HERTZ, HOA, HTTP, HYPOTHESIS, ICELAND, IGUANA, INFORMATION, INSECT, IO, IRL, KOREAN, MAGMA, MAINE, MATTER, MBPS, MIRROR, NEON, NEWTON, NINETY, NITROGEN, NIXON, OBJECTIVITY, PHOTOSYNTHESIS, PHOTOVOLTAIC, PI, PIE, PIN, PLUTO, PROMETHEUS, QED, QUALITATIVE, QUANTITATIVE, QUANTUM, RANCH, RASPUTIN, RBI, REPRODUCIBILITY, REPTILE, SATURN, SCIENTIFIC, SHE, SIA, SOPORIFIC, SQUEEZE, STANDARD, SUB, SUBTRACTIVE, SWIFT, TATTOO, TBS, TECH, TECHNOLOGY, THEORY, TOPAZ, UAE, UFO, UNIVERSITY, URANUS, USB, VERMONT, VIETNAM, WATER, WAVE, XX, YANKEE, ZOOM