Tuesday, January 23, 2024

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.

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:

Words: 107 · Puzzle Score: 172