Crosswords that work in college prep courses

Crossword puzzles are amusements appropriate for elementary school students. Middle school at tops. They sit at the base of Bloom's taxonomy, and have no place in a rigorous high school college prep course,

Or so I thought.

I don't even remember what my impetus was for creating a series of crossword puzzles for my college prep physic course, but create I did. Computer software meant I could load a list of words and the computer would craft a puzzle grid. Then I could add words to flesh out the puzzle and fill the page.

What I didn't expect was student enthusiasm for the puzzles. That enthusiasm acted as a catalyst, and I worked out an implementation scheme.

High School Physics Crossword Puzzles [OpenStax-aligned]

The first set of crossword puzzles I posted on TPT consisted of puzzles I created years ago for my Conceptual Physics course. Next I posted a set intended for use with AP Physics students. Then I proceeded with crosswords aligned with the OpenStax Chemistry, Biology, and Astronomy textbooks.

The Chemistry textbook had a decent set of key terms for each chapter. Key terms in Biology were ... abundant! In the Astronomy textbook, I needed to supplement key terms with "non-key" terms from the chapters.

This brings me to the OpenStax Physics: High School textbook. I aimed for about 50 topical terms (key and non-key terms from each chapter along with review terms from previous chapters as needed). Additional terms were added to fill the gaps in the puzzle. Additional terms could be physics or science-related. But they could also be from random tops all over the general knowledge board. State nicknames, chemical symbols, tech, Roman numerals, and so on.

As ever, the resulting puzzles each include over 100 words with over 150 crosses. "Busy crosswords".

I gave crosswords to students as they finished unit tests. It gave quick test-takers something to do while classmates finished their tests. I gave them puzzles for the upcoming unit of study. Each puzzle had enough non-chapter terms to keep students engaged before and while learning the upcoming unit.

High School Physics Crosswords MEGABUNDLE at TPT

All 23 puzzles, bundled and steeply discounted.

High School Physics Crosswords Series One: Motion and Forces at TPT

Puzzles 1-5 bundled and discounted.