Great American Eclipse

As I post this, the "Great American Eclipse" is days away. NOVA released this video today as eclipse chasers are nervously monitoring cloud-cover forecasts and making their way toward the path of totality.

I worked a bit furiously to craft this question set for those who might find it useful.

GREAT AMERICAN ECLIPSE at TPT

Explore the spectacular cosmic phenomenon of a total solar eclipse. In April 2024, the Moon’s shadow is sweeping from Texas to Maine, as the U.S. witnesses its last total solar eclipse until 2044. This extraordinary astronomical event is plunging locations in the path of totality into darkness for more than four minutes–nearly twice as long as the last American eclipse in 2017. Learn how to watch an eclipse safely and follow scientists as they work to unlock secrets of our Sun–from why its atmosphere is hundreds of times hotter than its surface, to what causes solar storms and how we might one day predict them.

Participants include Amir Caspi, Craig DeForest, Jon Ghahate, Kelly Korreck, Judith Nakamura, Tyler Nordgren, Hakeem Oluseyi, Mathieu Ossendrijver, Sam Parks, Anjali Piette, Jenna Samra, Grant Tremblay, Anjali Tripathi, and Michael Wong.

For additional eclipse content, see:

ECLIPSE OVER AMERICA (2017)

TOTAL ECLIPSE (pre-2017)

From Ann Arbor to Asteroids

ANN ARBOR (c. 1984) I settle into booth in the recently opened food court area in the basement of the Michigan Union to work on a Physics 401 problem set. It's early afternoon, and I am fueled by a slice and a soda—sorry, pizza and a pop (this is Michigan!). The fellow undergrad preparing the square pizzas at Parcheezi is Phil Plait. And $2.85 was all you needed for that lunch. 

Later that evening, I visit my neighbor at the Mary Markley dorm to finish the 401 problem set. He's a year younger than me, and super brilliant. His name is Dan Durda and, like me, he can be found in the audience at the monthly AstroFest presentations produced by Jim Loudon. We attended those gatherings religiously!

SACRAMENTO (c. 1996) I'm a fan of Homicide: Life on the Street (predecessor to HBO's The Wire). The guy playing drug kingpin Luther Mahoney is Erik Todd Dellums. Many actors relish playing the bad guy, and Dellums is clearly eating up this role.

(2015) I've been asked to introduce Michio Kaku at the Sacramento Speakers Series. It's a rare non-wedding, non-funeral occasion for which I am willing to dress up. I do my best to hype him up for the large auditorium crowd.

BOZEMAN, 2024. I'm writing a question set to accompany Asteroids: Worlds that Never Were, an episode of How the Universe Works. The episode is narrated by Erik Todd Dellums. It features astronomy experts Dan Durda, Phil Plait, as well as physicist Michio Kaku.

ASTEROIDS: WORLDS THAT NEVER WERE at TPT

From icy worlds with more fresh water than Earth to flying mountains of pure metal, asteroids shaped our past and promise much for the future. Could these enigmatic space rocks hold the key to how life in the Universe arises and is extinguished?

Comets: To Catch a Frozen Wanderer

In 1996 and 1997, comets had quite a moment. Comet Hyakutake and Comet Hale-Bopp garnered attention worldwide. Some people used the passage of Hale-Bopp for nefarious purposes that ended tragically.

I recall Hale-Bopp being much more celebrated, but Hyakutake being much more beautiful in the sky.

In any case, comets can burst onto the scene with little notice. What are they all about? We begin with an episode from How the Universe Works. Comets: Frozen Wanderers provides a nice, comprehensive lesson on the nature of comets. It holds out hope that ESA's Rosetta/Philae mission will be able to get up close and personal with a comet.

PBS's To Catch a Comet picks up the story from there, providing a moment-by-moment account of Rosetta's rendezvous with Comet 67P. A great story with challenges and nail-biting moments.

As always, I have questions.

COMETS: FROZEN WANDERERS at TPT

We follow the odyssey of a comet as it sails through space, watching every move as it evolves from a chunk of ice and rock into an active nucleus engulfed in a gaseous haze. What we learn is a revelation; comets are even more mysterious than we imagined.

TO CATCH A COMET at TPT

On November 11, 2014, billions of kilometers from Earth, a spacecraft orbiter and lander did what no other had dared to attempt: land on the volatile surface of a comet as it zooms around the sun at 67,000 km/hr.

Hunt for the Oldest DNA

Sometimes the inspiration for a scientific breakthrough is an apple falling from a tree. Sometimes it's a race between a train and a light wave. And sometimes ...

Sometimes it's a dog pooping in the rain.

Sequencing DNA that's more than a million years old was thought to be impossible. And it was. Until it wasn't. Breaking that barrier is a story of scientific perseverance laced with frustration, anti-bullying vibes, and real consequences of failing to solve an as-yet insoluble problem. Success was never guaranteed, and it came at a price.

But what a story it is! Watch the program. If it's something that works with your curriculum, consider using the question set with students. It's written with them in mind: to keep them actively engaged without ever boring them. (And welcome to NOVA's 51st season!)

HUNT FOR THE OLDEST DNA at TPT

For decades, scientists have tried to unlock the secrets of ancient DNA. But life’s genetic blueprint is incredibly fragile, and researchers have struggled to find DNA in fossils that could survive millions of years. Then, one maverick scientist had the controversial idea to look for DNA not in fossils or frozen ancient tissue – but in dirt. Join the hunt as scientists decipher the oldest DNA ever found, and reveal for the first time the genes of long-extinct creatures that once thrived in a warm, lush Arctic.

Participants include Tom Gilbert, Ross Macphee, Mikkel Pedersen, Maanasa Raghavan, Maureen Raymo, Alexandra Rouillard, Natalia Rybczynski, Astrid Schmidt, Beth Shapiro, Niobe Thompson, and Eske Willerslev.

For more DNA content, see:

Human Nature

Secrets in our DNA

Astronomy Crossword Puzzles

Who needs astronomy crossword puzzles? I have no idea! But if you do, I have some you might like. When I make crossword puzzles, I include appropriate chapter key terms; everyone does. But where most creators stop there, I take things further. I fill those awkward empty spaces (large enough to grow farm crops). I bring in non-key terms from the chapter, terms from previous chapters, science, math, general knowledge, pop culture, and randomness. That's among The Lessons of Phyz Advantages.

The good people at OpenStax have published Astronomy 2e on their site. Chapters 2-30 have key terms. So I am making crossword puzzles for those chapters. This post will grow one puzzle at a time until all puzzles are finished. Some chapters have very few key terms; those chapters are combined into a single puzzle.

My favorite use case is to distribute the next chapter's crossword puzzle on unit test day. That is, give out the Chapter 2 puzzle on Chapter 1 test day, and so on. It's nice for keeping the room quiet while students finish the test at different times from one another. You might naturally worry that students wouldn't have a chance with a puzzle filled with as-yet uncovered vocabulary. And you'd be right, except that I filled my puzzle space gaps with words they already know from previous chapters or general knowledge. Often the acronyms and initialisms are, well, very straightforward. The clue for NIST is National Institute for Science and Technology. I gave students the duration of the next unit to complete the puzzle.

2. Observing the Sky: The Birth of Astronomy at TPT [Free]

Word Count: 107   Word Crosses (Puzzle Score): 166

Key terms: Accelerate, Apparent, Astrology, Celestial, Circumpolar, Cosmology, Ecliptic, Epicycle, Equator, Geocentric, Heliocentric, Horizon, Horoscope, Parallax, Planet, Poles, Precession, Retrograde, Year, Zenith, Zodiac

Selected additional terms: Aquarius, Arabic, Aries, Astronomy, Cancer, Capricornus, Constellation, Copernicus, Diameter, Flat, Galileo, Geyser, Hubble, Jupiter, Leo, Libra, Magnet, Mars, Mercury, Meteor, Milky, Mol, Moon, Nasa, NIST, Nobel, Ophiuchus, Optics, Owl, Pauli, Pisces, Planetarium, Polaris, Ptolemy, Renaissance, Sagittarius, Scorpius, Sputnik, Starlink, STP, Sun, Syene, Taurus, Uranus, Virgo, Voyager

All puzzles include an online option for tech-savvy users who can upload files to a server space. Here's a sample of an online version.

https://phyz.org/crosswords/02-Birth

3. Orbits and Gravity at TPT

Words: 105   Puzzle Score: 162

Eclipse Over America (2017)

The Great American Eclipse of 2024 is April 8. And that's coming right up. I made it to totality in 2017, so I understand the addiction that eclipse chasers feel. I knew exactly what was going to happen, when it was going to happen, where it was going to happen, and why it was going to happen.

None of that mattered when it actually happened. An expletive passed my lips involuntarily. 

I'll chase totality in April, as well. In any case, NOVA produced Eclipse Over America in conjunction with the 2017 eclipse. For reasons that elude me, they have not posted the episode to YouTube, nor have they made it available to PBS Passport subscribers. Amazon's Prime Video seems to have it available for purchase, though they have it mislabelled as a season 17 episode. Apple iTunes seems to need you to buy they whole season (44) to access the episode. I found a streaming copy of it on Facebook.

ECLIPSE OVER AMERICA on TPT

On August 21, 2017, millions of Americans witnessed the first total solar eclipse to cross the continental United States in 99 years. As in in total solar eclipses, the moon blocked the sun and revealed its ethereal outer atmosphere—its corona—in a wondrous celestial spectacle. While hordes of citizens flocked to the eclipse’s path of totality, scientists, too, staked out spots for a very different reason: to investigate the secrets of the sun’s elusive atmosphere. During the eclipse’s precious seconds of darkness, they gathered new clues on how our sun works, how it can produce deadly solar storms, and why its atmosphere is so hot. NOVA investigates the storied history of solar eclipse science and joins both seasoned and citizen-scientists alike as they don their eclipse glasses, tune their telescopes, and revel in the eclipse that spanned the continent.

Participants include Amir Caspi, Nicky Fox, Holly Gilbert, Don Hassler, Jason Kalirai, James Klimchuk, Bill Murtagh, Tyler Nordgren, Mathieu Ossendrijver, Jay Pasachoff, Steven Tomczyk, and Constantine Tsang.

The Universe's Total Eclipse is an older eclipse documentary. And I have questions.

Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul

A few years ago, we began seeing a spike in unscheduled fire alarms at my school. The culprit? Boys vaping in the bathrooms during class. And the leading vape product among teens? Juul.

Juul was a phenomenon. It burned bright and it died young. Its story is instructive. And packs a few surprises. At its heart, it's a story of when moving fast and breaking things, the celebrated Silicon Valley ethos, goes sideways.

This is a great lesson in marketing literacy. It also involves engineering, venture capitalism, and public health.

NOTE: This program is rated TV-MA (MPAA equivalent: R). Profanity is not bleeped. Instructors will want to pre-screen the episode to assess propriety for their students. 

BIG VAPE: THE RISE AND FALL OF JUUL at TPT

In this docuseries, a scrappy electronic cigarette startup becomes a multibillion-dollar company until an epidemic causes its success to go up in smoke.

1. THE SPARK

Two Stanford graduates set out to disrupt the tobacco industry by creating a sleek new product for adult smokers but run into a series of struggles.

2. FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Upon launch, Juul rolls out an edgy campaign targeting youth culture until the popular ads come under criticism and spur new regulations from the FDA.

3. WHERE’S MY JUUL?

Viral social media videos and word-of-mouth send Juul and its flavor pods flying off shelves- and into the hands of kids, causing nationwide outrage.

4. OVERNIGHT BILLIONAIRES

A landmark deal makes billionaires of Juul's founders but leaves other employees torn. A health crisis linked to vaping jeopardizes the company's future.

Biology Crossword Puzzles

With Conceptual and AP Physics crosswords covered, I moved on to Chemistry. Physics vocabulary is fairly pedestrian. We do our intimidation in the form of mathematics. Chemistry vocabulary wanders deeper into the esoteric: stoichiometry right off the bat. Pnictogen? Chemistry's got some words. 

Now that Chemistry's covered, it was time to move on to Biology. Intro Biology has very little math, so it brings the words. So many words that live their best lives within the confines of the study of life sciences. Endoplasmic reticulum arrives early and it's got plenty of friends.

Like the Chemistry puzzles, the Biology puzzles are aligned with an OpenStax online textbook. I chose Concepts of Biology this time. While nature may abhor a vacuum, I abhor crossword puzzles with yawning gaps and empty spaces. This time, some gaps were filled with terms from "100 Words Middle School Students Should Know" from vocabulary.com. Others were filled with terms from science, mathematics, geography, pop culture, and randomness. Students will be amused and surprised to see some of the terms that show up in these puzzles.

1. Introduction to Biology at TPT [Free]

Word Count: 108 · Puzzle Score (word crosses): 170

Core terms: Applied, Atom, Based, Basic, Biology, Biosphere, Cell, Community, Control, Deductive, Descriptive, Ecosystem, Eukaryote, Evolution, Falsifiable, Homeostasis, Hypothesis, Inductive, Law, Life, Macromolecule, Method, Molecule, Natural, Organ, Organelle, Organism, Peer, Phylogenetic, Physical, Population, Prokaryote, Science, System, Theory, Tissue, Variable

Selected additional terms: Acronyms, Adversary, AI, Air, Amber, Animal, Cheetah, Civic, Contortion, Cpu, Density, Divide, Earth, Elephant, Emu, Exodus, Eye, Gem, Hasten, Jupiter, Jut, Leopard, Lion, Mercury, Meter, Muscle, Navel, Neon, Neptune, Onion, Orion, Paris, Physics, Pluto, Quotient, Recluse, Slope, Twitch, Typhoons, URL, USB, xy

I posted this one online so you can see how the online version plays. Here's the link:

https://phyz.org/crosswords/01-Intro2Bio

2. Chemistry of Life at TPT

Words: 107 · Puzzle Score: 172

The Lessons of Phyz Advantages - Crosswords

CROSSWORD PUZZLES EDITION · [video question sets edition here]

Crossword puzzles in an academic core or AP lab class? Yes!

Crossword puzzles are a simple exercise in matching clues to words. Except the word, itself, is not given. The number of letters is given. And as the grid is filled in, letters of the words become apparent. By the time students ere sitting in the high school science class, they know how to work crossword puzzles without any instruction.

Does the puzzle engage students in the highest reaches of Bloom's taxonomy? No. But that's okay. Lower level retrieval has a place in the curriculum, too. And sometimes, spelling could benefit from this kind of reenforcement. In any case, students are involved in academic vocabulary.

My AP students would tear into crossword puzzles with no promise of a reward. They couldn't resist the challenge. Among grade-level Physics students, the ones who seemed most engaged in the crossword puzzles tended to be the students who were otherwise least engaged in the course as a whole. Compared to challenging conceptual questions or mathematical problems, knocking out answers on the crossword seemed much more manageable. 

And then there were the words that were not on the chapter's vocabulary list. For my original Physics crossword series, I leaned into a list of "100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know" I found on the Internet. My English-teaching colleagues always appreciated this. Some even offered a few terms that weren't on the Internet's list.

For subsequent series (AP Physics, Chemistry, etc.), I loosened up a bit. Taylor Swift references? K-pop? Star Wars? Why not? Each puzzle's description on TPT includes the complete word list. There you can see that I did work Metallica, Megadeth, and Judas Priest into the chemistry crossword about metals. Because of course I did. Meco snuck into that puzzle, too. But that's a story of other galactic funk.

Filling the grid in The Age of Search

I use a crossword creator program (Puzzle Maker for Mac by Hokua Software LLC) to produce a puzzle grid that includes all (or virtually all) the core terms I'm hoping to get into a puzzle. The program builds several grids and allows me to choose. Computers are good at constructing a grid with lots of crossed words. Still though, it spends a few minutes concocting the options. That initial puzzle, with about 50 terms on a 28 x 28 grid, has too much empty space for my liking.

I'm no Will Shortz. (There's only one Will Shortz and he's a national treasure.) But I do feel a compulsion to fill in that grid with additional words. With an initial puzzle already built, the words I add have to fit specific places on the grid. Second letter E and fifth letter L, and so on.

There are web pages designed to find words that match the criteria. Sometimes the criteria are too tough: no matches. Sometimes they're too easy: 672 matches. This is the process that consumes the bulk of the puzzle-building time.

I usually begin scoping out the puzzle to see if I can add planet names. Or terms from previous chapters. Or math. When the going gets tough (near the end) and only two-letter "words" will do, state abbreviations and chemical symbols come in handy. As do Roman numerals, to be honest.

Sometimes a three-letter term is needed to bridge a gap. Government agencies are useful there. And some of the word-clue combos are essentially giveaways: three-letter term for Universal Serial Bus. Is it still instructive? Not everybody knows what USB or URL stands for. So there's that. Initialism are handy. Acronyms are nice, too: SCUBA and LASER come to mind. (Not everybody knows initialisms and acronyms are different things.)

In the end, I usually and up with a puzzle that has more than a hundred words that cross in over 150 places. Compare that to all the other puzzles you see for use in the classroom. Honestly: any of them! They might have two dozen words that cross in three dozen places. But they'll nearly always have enough open space to grow crops in. That was understandable in the 1970s. But now we have computers and the Internet. Machines are great at coming up with busy grids and words that will fill the spaces.

Would AI come up with a better puzzle? Maybe. I'm sure it could fill more of the 28 x 28 grid than I do. But would the words be appropriate for high school science students? Would those gap-filler words be matched to the intended audience? I haven't tried any AI crossword puzzle generators.

I design puzzles that take time to solve completely. Collaboration may be helpful. The Internet knows the answer to each individual clue (I think). But it's going to take a while, no matter how you solve it.

Fun use case: give a puzzle to students with no Internet access and see how it goes. Let them collaborate. I'm confident that a room full of high school science students could solve any of my puzzles. Eventually.

More standard use case: give the next unit's puzzle to students as they turn in unit tests with time to spare. My unit tests tended to be short enough that average students would have time left in the hour. They had to work quietly on something. My crosswords were a nice way to spend this minutes. And even though they weren't yet familiar with the next unit's academic vocabulary, half the terms in the crossword were terms they might already know. And the exercise gave them a preview of the new words to be learned soon.

Print or Online: Whatever Works for You

I used crossword puzzles in class in The Before Times, so I printed and photocopied them. When lockdowns hit, the importance of online options became apparent. The Before Times aren't coming back, so my crossword puzzles are printable and uploadable for use online. To implement the online option, you need to upload the HTML folder to your server space, then share the resulting web address (URL) with students. I uploaded a few to my own server space so you can see how they play online. They work well on laptops and tablets; not so well on phones.

Word List And Partially Solved Options

Each puzzle includes a Word List text file and PDF that can be printed and photocopied or shared electronically. Additionally, I included PDFs of "partially solved" puzzles. Grade-level puzzles include student documents with 10% and 20% of the letters filled in in advance. For AP Physics, the pre-solves are 5% and 10%.

Me? I didn't give students the word list or partially solved puzzles. But the options are there for you. Your students; your call!

Crossword puzzles at The Lessons of Phyz

Chemistry Crossword Puzzles

I finished sets of crossword puzzles for Physics and AP Physics (1 & 2). But creating crossword puzzles is so much much fun, I wandered the Internet over to OpenStax and found their Chemistry textbook. The first chapter had an end-of-chapter vocabulary list. So away I went. This post will be updated as new chemistry crosswords are added to the collection.

The Lessons of Phyz crossword advantage? At least 100 words that cross at least 150 times. Not those mostly empty grids with a handful of words and two dozen crosses. I'm no Will Shortz, but I am putting in some effort. And while the majority of the terms are chemistry, science, and math-related, the occasional Taylor Swift, Disney, or other pop culture references work to engage students that might be otherwise less engaged in the course. My own students used to gobble up crossword puzzles even without any promise of reward. Conquering the grid was all the incentive they needed.

1. Essential Ideas at TPT [Free]

Word Count: 103 · Puzzle Score (word crosses): 158

Core terms:Accuracy, Atom, Celsius, Centimeter, Change, Chemical, Chemistry, Compound, Conservation, Conversion, Cubic, Density, Element, Exact, Extensive, Fahrenheit, Gas, Heterogeneous, Homogeneous, Hypothesis, Intensive, Kelvin, Kilogram, Law, Length, Liquid, Liter, Macroscopic, Mass, Matter, Meter, Microscopic, Milliliter, Mixture, Molecule, Physical, Plasma, Precision, Property, Pure, Rounding, Second, SI, Significant, Solid, Temperature, Theory, Uncertainty, Unit, Volume, Weight

Selected additional terms: Acute, Amber, Andromeda, cc, Cone, cos, Divide, Echo, Etna, GMO, Gram, HIV, Hue, Inch, Neptune, Odor, Parallel, Perpendicular, sin, Sodium, Spine, TNT, Venus

BONUS: Online Version of "Essential Ideas" Chemistry Crossword

2. Atoms Molecules Ions at TPT

Words: 103 · Puzzle Score: 159

The Battle to Beat Malaria

As good as we've been at developing and improving vaccines for the past century, an inoculation against malaria has eluded us. There are reasons that 142 potential malaria vaccines have failed. Malaria is not a virus or a bacteria, it's a parasite. And a pernicious one at that.

In recent years, two vaccines have proven successful. This is the story of R21. And it's as "ripped from the headlines"/"hot off the press" as an episode of NOVA can be. Some of the principal footage was shot in October, 2023.

This one packs a bit of hard-to-watch footage as a population of mosquitoes are "blood fed" on the arm of a researcher. I winced. It also shows a fairly powerful emotional moment when a researcher learns the results of a clinical trial. I confess that I go along for the ride such vignettes take us on.

The picture for a malaria vaccine is improving. I won't miss it if we can relegate it to the history books. The photo I used for the cover really is from Africa—I shot it in Botswana in 2014.

The Battle to Beat Malaria at TPT

Malaria is one of humanity’s oldest and most devastating plagues. In many parts of the world, it remains an ever-present scourge that sickens or kills millions of people each year. What if it could finally be defeated? Now, scientists may be on the verge of a breakthrough with a promising vaccine in the final stages of testing and approval. Follow researchers on a quest to deliver humankind from one of the world’s deadliest diseases. 

Inside China's Tech Boom

This is a story of how we came to be in a tech war with China. It might be a bit jarring to some as it's not told from a populist or conservative political perspective. Some may cast it as Chinese propaganda promoting Huawei or some such. It's not that.

My own takeaway is that the US is hoping to slow China's technological world dominance, and current techniques could be effective in the short term. But when China overcomes the US speed bumps, we're going to find ourselves in a situation. A situation not of our liking, and with little to bargain with. We've got a head start, but I fear we won't make the best if it. Who knows? I've been wrong before.

Inside China's Tech Boom at TPT

In the span of just a few decades, China has transformed into a science and technology superpower. But how did it get here and where is it headed? Take an insider’s tour of high-profile tech companies and labs that are driving China’s meteoric rise to the forefront of global innovation. How does China innovate? What drives its bid for technological supremacy? And what does its rise mean for the future of the global economy?

Evolution Earth

It's not always clear to me why certain documentary properties are picked up by NOVA while others run "independently" on PBS. In the end, I'm not sure it's critically important.

In autumn, 2023, two series are running on PBS that constitute a popular social media meme.

How it started : How it's going. The it here is Life on Earth. 

How it started is documented in Ancient Earth (BBC/NOVA). It chronicles the events that transpired to bring Earth from a lifeless rock to planet bustling with living organisms. And yes, I have questions!

How it's going is documented in Evolution Earth (PBS). It details contemporary evolution in progress, often spurred by human impact on the environment. 

Both series tell their stories across five episodes.

Evolution Earth BUNDLE at TPT

Evolution Earth embarks on a global expedition to reveal the animals keeping pace with a planet changing at superspeed. Heading out across the globe to distant wilds and modern urban environments, five episodes track how animals are moving, using ingenuity to adapt their behavior, and even evolving in unexpected ways.

At the front lines of this rapid change are the scientists, filmmakers and local communities recording the animals’ stories. We follow heart-warming tales of resilience that redefine our understanding of evolution, and hint at how nature can show us a path towards a sustainable future for Planet Earth.

The series is narrated by Dr. Shane Campbell-Staton, who guides us through each episode in an intimate narrative style, drawing on his background as an evolutionary biologist.

1. Earth at TPT

At Earth’s extremes, animals are reacting in surprising ways. Animal homes are changing around them at superspeed. Follow remarkable stories of resilience and hope. From humpback whales to tiny butterflies to ingenious savanna chimpanzees.

Segments: Savanna Chimpanzees · Coastal Humpback Whales · Edith’s Checkerspot Butterflies · Mountain Pine Beetles · Marine Iguanas

Cover Photo: Marine iguanas and a finch enjoying each others' company on a beach in the Galápagos islands, August 2008.

2. Islands at TPT

Islands are like miniature simplified Earths, where evolution is playing out at super speed right before our eyes. Journey from the Galapagos to the edge of Antarctica to seek out animals responding to our changing planet in extraordinary ways.

Segments: Sea Lions · Finches · Silver Key Anoles · Pacific Field Crickets · South Georgia Pipits · Red Colobus Monkeys · Mangrove Forests

Cover Photo: Fur seal eyes a Galápagos lava lizard. Galápagos islands, August 2008. [I confess to the faux pas of representing the sea lion and and Silver Key anole with a fur seal and lava lizard, but the photo was too much fun not to use.]

3. Heat at TPT

Travel to the hottest and driest extremes to see animals go to extraordinary lengths to survive. From the Sahara Desert to Australia, animals provide new clues about our changing planet and what it will mean for the future of our heating world.

Segments: Savanna Chimpanzees II · Nubian Ibex · Saharan Silver Ants · Zebra Finches · Atomic Camels · People of the Sahara 

Cover Photo: Death Valley, December 2005. The desert locations used in the episode are a bit more far-flung (Sahara and Gobi, for example.) But I like what I captured in Death Valley years ago. I'll only go there from November through March.

4. Ice at TPT

At the planet’s frozen extremes, shifts in animal movement and behavior reveal vital information about our future world. Examine polar bears in the Arctic, penguins in Antarctica and other animals surviving in icy worlds.

Segments: Polar Bears · Mountain Hares · Gentoos and Adélies · Billy Barr · Wandering Albatross Winds · Lemmings and Foxes · The Sámi and Their Reindeer Herds

Cover Photo: A Polar Bear in the Pack Ice, July 2018. We had to sail to 83°N to find polar bears north of Svalbard. Once you spot one, you plow your boat into the ice and stop the engines. The bear will come to you. They're curious as to this new thing in their desolate environment, and must investigate.

5. Grasslands at TPT

Grasslands are one of the planet’s most important, yet most overlooked habitats. Follow scientists as they discover animal species with the power to transform and restore our grasslands, turning them into carbon sinks that could slow climate change.

Segments: The Serengeti: Wildebeest and Dung Beetles · Patagonia: Guanacos, Pumas · American Prairies: Butterflies, Bison, Prairie Dogs, Oaks, Grasshoppers, and Roots

Cover Photo: The Sun Sets on Theodore Roosevelt National Park, July 2022. This North Dakota national park includes acres and acres of grasslands.

Advanced Placement Crossword Puzzles

That's right. Physics crosswords suitable for AP Physics students. Topical terms constitute the core of the word list. Unlike the first series, there are no “words all high school students should know” vocabulary terms. Fill-in terms lean toward physics and science, but sometimes wander into pop culture or randomness. 

One nice thing about crosswords is that students know what to do with them without any instructions. They take to the challenge right away. The students who enjoy them most are often students who don't seem to enjoy the class the most. 

Note: the "puzzle score" stat listed in each puzzle's description indicates the number of word crosses/intersections. If you look at other crosswords at TPT or elsewhere, they typically involve a few dozen (sometimes one dozen) words with a few dozen crosses. Lessons of Phyz crosswords tend to involve more than 100 words with 150+ crosses. I begin each puzzle with core typical words, then fill in the gaps with terms from, physics, science, pop culture, and randomness. I intend to fill the grid without making something that will require more than two pages.

AP PHYSICS 1

An AP1 Physics Crossword Puzzle Bundle includes all three of the following.

Motion and Forces at TPT

110 words with a puzzle score of 171. This is the first crossword of the year for the AP Physics 1 class. It covers kinematics, Newton's laws, circular motion and gravity. Core terms: Acceleration, Arc, Aristotle, Average, Body, Brahe, Brake, Centripetal, Change, Circular, Copernicus, Deceleration, Distance, Drag, Earth, Ellipse, Force, Friction, Galileo, Gas, Gravitational, Inclined, Inertia, Instantaneous, Interval, Kepler, Kilogram, Launch, Laws, Mass, Meter, Mu, Newton, Normal, Opposite, Pairs, Plane, Position, Projectile, Ptolemy, Pulley, Rate, Rest, Scalar, Speed, Steering, Sum, Tangential, Tension, Terminal, Uniform, Unit, Vector, Velocity, Weight.

Energy and Momentum at TPT

127 words with a puzzle score of 182. The core words come from these conserved quantities. Additional words begin from motion and forces before going to other fields. Core terms: Bounce, Bullet, Collision, Conservation, Daughter, Elastic, Energy, Explosion, Fd,  Flex, Force,  GW, Half, Height, Impact, Impulse, Inelastic, Joule, kgms, Kinetic, Mass, mgh, Momentum, mv, Potential, Power, Speed, Speed, Square, Stable, Target, Time, Unstable, Velocity, Watt, Work. 

Additional terms include Acceleration, Apex, Areas, Atom, Axis, Centripetal, Deceleration, Drag, Earth, Ellipse, Equal, Friction, Galileo, Gravity, Hot, Ideal, Inertia, Kelvin, Kepler, Kilogram, Kinematics, Lab, Laser, Log, Mercury, Meter, Nano, Newton, Normal, Nu, Opposite, Orbs, Ovum, Pair, Pattern, Petri, Pi, Rest, Rev, Second, Solid, Star, Tension, Tera, Tesla, Uniform, Universal, Waves, Weight.

Vibration and Rotation at TPT

121 words with a puzzle score of 189. The core words come from harmonic motion and rotational mechanics. Additional terms come from force, motion, energy, and momentum. Core terms: Acceleration, Alpha, Amplitude, Angular, Arm, Axis, Balance, Conservation, Constant, Cylinder, Degrees, Displacement, Elastic, Energy,  Force, Frequency, Fulcrum, Harmonic, Hollow, Hooke, Hoop, Inertia, Kinetic, kx, Length, Lever, Mass, Maximum, Minimum, Momentum, Omega, Parallel, Pendulum, Period, Potential, Radian, Ratio, Resonance, Restoring, Revolutions, Rotational, sin, Solid, Sphere, Spring, Standing, Tau, Top, Torque, Velocity. 

Selected additional terms: Centripetal, Collision, Deceleration, Earth, Ellipse, Fusion, Gram, Gravitational, Impact, Kilo, Luna, ma, Meter, mgh, Nano, nm, N/m, Nrg, Opposite, Peta, Pi, Pluto,  RGB,  Saturn, Slow, Tension, Uranus, Venus, vt.

AP PHYSICS 2

An AP2 Physics Crossword Puzzle Bundle includes all five of the following.

Mechanics Review at TPT

113 words with a puzzle score of 166. At the beginning of the year of AP Physics 2, we spend time reviewing the common mechanics topics covered in grade-level Physics and AP Physics 1. AP2 presumes knowledge of these topics, but we won't cover them formally in AP2. This crossword is part of this review process. Core terms: Acceleration, Action, Arc, Centripetal, Collision, Components, Conserved, Direction, Drag, Earth, Elastic, Ellipse, Energy, Equal, Explosion, External, Force, Friction, Fun, Galileo, Gravity, Horizontal, Impact, Inelastic, Inertia, Interaction, Inversely, Joule, Js, kg, kgms, Kilo, Kilogram, Kinetic, Mass, Mechanical, Meter, Momentum, ms, Mu, Net, Newton, Nm, Normal, Opposite, Orbit, Parabola, Power, Projectile, Relative, rev, Run, Second, Speed, Spring, Square, Tangential, Tension, Uniform, Unit, Universal, Velocity, Watt, Weight, Work.

Fluids and Thermodynamics at TPT

105 words with a puzzle score of 150. The core words come from fluid mechanics and thermodynamics. Core terms: Absolute, Adiabatic, Archimedes, Area, Bernoulli, Buoyant, Carnot, Cold, Conductivity, Continuity, Cycle, Density, Depth, Displacement, Efficiency, Energy, Engine, Entropy, Float, Fluid, Force, Gauge, Heat, Hot, Impulse, Isobaric, Isothermal, Isovolumic, Joule, Kelvin, kPa, Law, Pascal, Pressure, Sink, Temperature, Thermal, Torricelli, Volume, Wind, Work.

Selected additional terms: Amplitude, Charge, cos, Cyan, Deceleration, Dipole, Ear, Echo, Elements, Gravity, Hertz, Inertia, Luna, Node, Omega, Orca, Oxygen, Petals, Radical, Rate, Rougher, Senses, Series, sin, Sleep, Sound, Spectrum, Tesla, Test, Tnt, Torque, USB, Velocity, Wavelength, Zinc.

Electricity and Magnetism at TPT

114 words with a puzzle score of 174.  The core terms come from electrostatics, circuits, and magnetism. Core terms: Ampere, As, Attract, BA, Battery, Capacitor, Charge, Circuit, Conduction, Conductor, Coulomb, Current, Destructive, Dipole, Domain, Electrons, Electrostatic, Energizes, Energy, Faraday, Field, Flux, Force, Franklin, Generator, Glass, Induction, Insulator, IR, Kirchhoff, Magnet, Motor, Negative, Neutral, Oersted, Ohm, Open, Parallel, Polarized, Pole, Positive, Potential, Power, Proton, Repel, Resistance, Resistor, Semiconductor, Series, Short, Silk, Superconductor, Tesla, Volt, Voltage, Watt, Weber.

Optics at TPT

116 words with a puzzle score of 177. The core terms come from geometric (ray) optics and physical (wave) optics.mCore terms: Angle, Blue, Center, Central, Chartreuse, Concave, Cone, Constructive, Converging, Convex, Critical, Destructive, Diffraction, Diffuse, Dispersion, Diverging, Enlarged, Focus, Frequency, Glare, Height, Image, Incident, Index, Interference, Internal, Inverted, IR, Iridescence, Laser, Lens, Light, Magnification, Maxima, Minima, Mirror, Nano, Nitrogen, nm, Normal, Object, Optics, Order, Plane, Polarization, Radius, Rainbow, Ray, Real, Red, Reduced, Reflection, Refraction, Rod,  Screen, Slit, Snell, Specular, Ultraviolet, Upright, Violet, Virtual, Wavelength, Xray.

Atomic and Nuclear Physics at TPT

121 words with a puzzle score of 177. The core terms come from atomic and nuclear physics. Additional terms come from mechanics, fluids, thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, and optics. Core terms: Absorption, Atomic, Beta, Bohr, Chain, Charge, Critical, Curie, Dating, DeBroglie, Defect, Duality, Effect, Einstein, Electron, Emission, Energy, eV, Fission, Frequency, Function, Fusion, Gamma, Ground, Half, Hertz, hf, Ionize, Kinetic, Light, Momentum, Neutron, Nucleon, Nucleus, Number, Phi, Photoelectric, Photon, Planck, Proton, Quantum, Strong, Tension, Time, TOE, UV, Wavelength.

Ancient Earth

NOVA opened the the second half of its 50th season with a 5-part partnership with BBC called Ancient Earth. Previous such collaborations produced two spectacular series, The Planets and Universe Revealed. In any case, I have questions.

Ancient Earth BUNDLE on TPT 

Witness the dramatic history of Earth, from its birth to the emergence of humanity. Dive into the most dramatic events in Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history, from its birth to the emergence of humanity. How did a hellscape of molten lava transform into a lush, green, watery planet filled with life? With dazzlingly realistic animation based on the latest research, each of these five episodes brings to life long-lost worlds that ultimately led to the one we know today.

1. Birth of the Sky on TPT

I have had the good fortune of seeing many excellent documentaries on Earth's atmosphere. This is the best one I've ever seen. [I used a photograph I took on Floreana Island in the Galápagos for the cover.]

Today, Earth is enveloped by a thin veil of gas, a narrow band of atmosphere that protects a world covered in lush green vegetation, deep blue oceans, and abundant life. But 4.5 billion years ago, Earth was a very different place: a hellscape of molten lava and barren rock, under relentless bombardment from meteors, and with no atmosphere whatsoever. So how did our familiar blue sky come to be? Breathtakingly realistic animations and a chorus of science experts reveal how the primordial inferno first gave rise to an orange-hued cauldron of toxic gasses that would be deadly to us today. Witness how the first drops of rain splashed down on the searing planet, setting the stage for the evolution of life. And discover how life itself helped create the air we all breathe today.

Cover photo: Baroness viewpoint on Floreana Island in the Galápagos, when I was there in 2008 during The Amazing Adventure 3 with James (The Amazing Randi).

2. Frozen on TPT 

This is the story of Snowball Earth, Rodinia, eukaryotic life, plate tectonics, silicate weathering, the fall and rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the intertwined nature of biology and geology.

700 million years ago, Earth was a giant snowball cloaked in ice from pole to pole – a global deep freeze that held the planet in a stranglehold, threatening the survival of the earliest complex life. How did life manage to hold on in this forbidding world? Leading scientists investigate how this catastrophe may have become a catalyst for life to evolve in creative new ways as it bounced back from the brink – setting the stage for the astonishing complexity we see today.

Cover photo: The pack ice in the Arctic Ocean from the M/S Origo, summer 2018. 

3. Life Rising on TPT

This is the story of how plant life emerged from the ocean and populated the land. It was not a trivial matter. It required plate tectonics (which was apparently triggered by asteroid bombardment) for granite and carbon dioxide from volcanoes. And it required a symbiotic relationship with fungi to get from water onto land. "Prototaxites" was a new word for me.

For billions of years, life teemed in the oceans of planet Earth while the land was desolate and inhospitable. So how did life make the leap to land? Scientists explore how some of the earliest life emerged and invaded a barren, rocky landscape, eventually transforming it into a verdant, green world. Gripping visual effects reveal an alien landscape dominated by towering fungi before the arrival of plants. Witness how the first plants made landfall and partnered with fungi to create soil that would sustain them. And discover how, once life emerged on land, it fundamentally altered the very ground it grew on.

Cover photo: A riparian landscape taken while looking for jaguars in the Pantanal of Brazil's wild west, summer 2016. 

4. Inferno on TPT 

252 million years ago, the most devastating mass extinction of all time abruptly wiped out around 90% of all species on Earth. The culprits were the biggest volcanic eruptions the world has ever seen, emitting some 700 thousand cubic miles of magma and rock. Volcanic gasses permeated the atmosphere and acidified the oceans while toxic gasses destroyed the ozone layer, bathing the planet in destructive UV radiation. The event–now called “The Great Dying”–came close to wiping out all life on the planet. Follow scientists as they piece together geologic evidence from the deep past and clues from today’s ecosystems to discover how life made it through and evolved into the astonishing variety we see around us today.

5. Humans on TPT 

The story of Earth can only be told because now, 4.5 billion years into its existence, a technological and self-aware animal species roams its surface, able to study the very planet that gave rise to it. But how exactly did Earth give rise to humans? Through stunningly realistic animation, witness the cataclysmic asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs, the tumultuous changing climates that allowed early primates to spread across the planet, and the geologic events that created the conditions for the evolution of an animal that walks upright on two legs. Explore the power and paradox of humanity’s profound impact on our planet, and ponder the question of how we may shape its future.

Cover photo: Newspaper Rock in southeast Utah, as I saw it in April, 2004.  

Human Nature

Human Nature is a Wonder Collaborative documentary that was picked up by PBS NOVA. And I have questions.

It's the story of CRISPR: the challenges that were insurmountable prior to CRISPR, how CRISPR was discovered, how it's been implemented (so far), and what the future might hold. There are ethical concerns; they are explored. And this production was produced as a feature film. The production values are high, the soundtrack is not always subtle, and emotional punches are not always pulled. It's exceptionally well done.

After the introductory material (Preface), the film is divided into six chapters: Needle in a Haystack, CRISPR, The Gene Machine, Brave New World, Good Genes, and Playing God.

This is a 94-minute film, and I wrote 83 questions to accompany the viewing. That might seem like a lot of questions, but it is not. The questions maintain attention, but do not require reflection or analysis. And the question formats vary to prevent any potential fatigue. 

Human Nature at TPT

Physics Crossword Puzzles

Once I gained access to crossword puzzle creation software, I plied computer power to generate physics-themed puzzles. The trouble with most academic crosswords is that they consist one or two dozen words, not that many crosses, and a whole lot of empty "zen space". 

I was determined to fill the gaps on my physics crosswords with other terms, preferably science terms. When you get deep into gap-filling, you appreciate the value of short words, acronyms, and initialisms. Later I got the idea using words from online lists of "words all high school students should know". I knew that would bring some joy to the hearts of my ELA colleagues.

The puzzle-creation software package I initially used did not survive the 2000s. The most recent program I used still operates in the current version of the macOS operating system. So now I'm preparing crosswords for posting at TPT (Teachers Pay Teachers).

Puzzle Maker by Hokua Software LLC allows the creation of printable crosswords. It also allows for the creation of HTML puzzles that can be uploaded to one's server space and solved online. It also lets you drop in an image for the grid's backdrop rather than just using black, white, or gray. 

And for the printable PDF versions, I've prepared one with an empty grid, another with 10% of the letters prefilled, and another with 20% of the letters prefilled. Users can determine which level of difficulty is best for their students. I include a separate Word List for instructors to deploy at their own discretion. Words like "rarefaction" and "specular" are likely to show up where appropriate, as will high school vocab words like "impetuous" and "evanescent," so hints can prove useful.

I've discovered that there is much more craft involved in the creation of a robust, "busy" crossword puzzle, even with computer power. This is why so many subject-matter crosswords are so sparse.

Physics Crossword Puzzles at TPT