Word searchesGrades 3 to 8
Science word search
A word search drawn from 32 science terms, from atom and soil to evaporation and ecosystem. It is for upper elementary and middle school students reviewing a unit's vocabulary.
- Type your details or print blank
- Answer key on its own page
- Print or PDF, Letter or A4
- Free, no sign-up
On this page
A science unit comes with a stack of new words. This puzzle gives students a chance to see them again, in print, without a quiz. It opens on the Science Words theme at Medium.
What prints
You get a title ("Science Words Word Search"), an instruction line, a 14 × 14 grid in capitals and a word bank in alphabetical order with a box by each word. Medium places 16 of the theme's 32 words, in four directions: across, down and both diagonals. Page two is the solution sheet, where each found word is outlined and the surrounding letters fade.
The built-in 32 words are atom, cell, rock, gas, heat, acid, light, sound, wave, DNA, force, soil, energy, magnet, gravity, molecule, element, liquid, oxygen, carbon, friction, electron, proton, mineral, experiment, hypothesis, microscope, laboratory, evaporation, condensation, ecosystem and electricity. There are no definitions on the sheet.
The settings
- Title (optional) can name the unit, for example "Chapter 3 Terms".
- Theme is Science Words. Human Body, Plants, Weather, Ocean and Space and Planets pair well with it.
- Difficulty: Easy 10 × 10 with words of eight letters or fewer; Medium 14 × 14; Hard 17 × 17 with all eight directions, where long terms like condensation fit.
- Large print produces 12 × 12 with a dozen words at most.
- Lowercase letters prints small letters.
Making it a lesson
After the puzzle, ask students to sort the words into physical, life and earth science, or to write a sentence using three of them. The NASA learning resources page lists classroom activities that use many of these words in context, and the NIST page on SI units is a good reference when terms such as energy, force and heat come up with units attached. For a typed list of just the current unit, pick "My own words" and enter up to 30 words.
Words must have at least 3 letters, so DNA fits, and none can exceed the grid width. "Microscope" and "laboratory" fit comfortably at Medium and Hard.
Worked example: a sixth-grade electricity unit
Mr. Haddad is wrapping up a short unit on electricity. He keeps the theme at Science Words, sets Hard, and presses "New puzzle" until the bank shows electron, proton, energy, magnet and electricity. He prints a copy for each student. Early finishers write one sentence for each word they found, and he collects them. A student who finds "friction" backwards gets to demonstrate the word by rubbing hands together.
Related pages
Switch subjects on the space word search, or try the hard word search, which opens on this same theme at 17 × 17. A word scramble uses the same lists in a different way.