Scientific Method Crossword Puzzle

Print a criss-cross vocabulary crossword on the scientific method, from first question to conclusion, with a set of famous experiments.

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Scientific Method Crossword

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Answer key: Scientific Method Crossword

1M2G3RAPHE4DE5VARIABL6ESSTXUUAPL7CR8QUESTIONERN9PREDICTC10CML11OBSERVEUNNST12HYPOTHESISROONL

Across 2 GRAPH · 5 VARIABLE · 8 QUESTION · 9 PREDICT · 11 OBSERVE · 12 HYPOTHESIS

Down 1 MEASURE · 3 RESULT · 4 DATA · 6 EXPERIMENT · 7 CONCLUSION · 10 CONTROL

Next step Find scientific method words in a word searchPrint the scientific method vocabulary worksheet

All 129 clues

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Steps of an Investigation 26

  • Abstract Brief overview at the head of a research article
  • Analyze To study your numbers for a pattern
  • Communicate To pass your findings on to others
  • Conclusion Last step: what your test showed
  • Curiosity Urge to know why; NASA calls science this "in thoughtful action"
  • Detective NASA's page for kids says science invites you to become one
  • Experiment Something you design, set up and run to try out an idea
  • Guess A hunch with no testing behind it
  • Hypothesis A first answer you can put to the test
  • Inquiry Learning by asking and investigating
  • Maple Tree in a NASA example for kids: why do its leaves turn red in fall?
  • Materials Supply list near the top of a lab write-up
  • Notebook Where a scientist writes each day's work
  • Observe To watch what goes on, missing nothing
  • Poster Science fair work is often presented in a ___ session
  • Predict To say beforehand, as a weather forecaster does
  • Problem Puzzle that an investigation sets out to crack
  • Procedure Numbered list of what to do, in order
  • Purpose The "why" of an investigation
  • Question What you ask first; it ends in a ?
  • Report Final write-up that you hand in
  • Result What happened at the end of the test
  • Revise To rework an idea after a test goes against it
  • Title Top line of a lab write-up
  • Topic What you pick to investigate: magnets, weather, seeds
  • Wonder "I ___ why the sky is blue"

Variables and Fair Tests 23

  • Baseline Starting reading, taken before anything is changed
  • Bias Lean toward one outcome that spoils a test
  • Blind Kind of test in which people are not told which pill they got
  • Compare To see which of two things is taller, hotter or faster
  • Constant Anything kept the same in every run
  • Control The ___ group is left untreated
  • Dependent Describes the outcome you watch, which rests on what you set
  • Factor Anything that might affect the outcome
  • Fertilizer Plant food given to one bed and not the other in a garden test
  • Identical Exactly alike, as two setups must be except for one thing
  • Independent Describes the one thing you change deliberately
  • Placebo Look-alike pill with nothing in it, used to keep a test fair
  • Random Picked by luck alone, as by the flip of a coin
  • Reliable Steady: run it ten times and the outcome matches
  • Repeat To go through every step a second time
  • Replicate To run another team's test and get the same outcome
  • Sample A few from a big batch, picked to speak for all of it
  • Subject One of the people or animals taking part
  • Treatment The new medicine, feed or lesson that is being tried out
  • Trial Each single go at a test
  • Valid Describes a test that truly checks what it claims to
  • Variable Part of a test that can be set more than one way
  • Volunteer Willing participant in a study; nobody made them join

Measuring, Numbers and Plots 36

  • Accuracy Hitting the bullseye: nearness to the true amount
  • Average Middle-of-the-road figure: "on ___, I sleep nine hours"
  • Axis The x or the y, along the edge of a plot
  • Balance You zero it, then set a rock or a beaker on its pan
  • Chart A flow one shows steps joined by arrows
  • Cylinder A graduated one is tall lab glassware; a soup can is one too
  • Data Readings and notes that fill your log
  • Digits Significant ___: the figures of a reading that count
  • Error How far off a reading is
  • Estimate A careful rough figure, such as "about 20"
  • Graph It turns a column of numbers into a rising line
  • Histogram Side-by-side bars, one for each bin of a spread of numbers
  • Kelvin One of the SI's base units; its symbol is K
  • Kilogram One of the SI's base units; its symbol is kg
  • Label Name tag on a jar, a column or a drawing
  • Mean The sum divided by the count
  • Measure To put a number on it with a ruler or a clock
  • Median Line the numbers up by size; this one stands in the center
  • Meniscus Bend where water creeps up the side of a thin tube
  • Meter SI base unit of length, in its American spelling
  • Metric Family of units that scale by tens, from kilo- down to centi-
  • Mode In 2, 3, 3, 7 it is 3
  • Outlier A reading that differs greatly from all the others
  • Percent Fifty ___ is one half
  • Pie Circle cut into slices to show parts of a whole
  • Precision How close several readings are to one another
  • Qualitative Describes notes in words: color, smell, texture
  • Quantitative Like "12 cm" or "3 seconds", not like "blue" or "rough"
  • Record To log each reading as it comes
  • Scatter ___ plot: dots that pair two sets of numbers
  • Seven How many base units the SI has
  • Stopwatch Timer on a coach's neck cord, used for laps and sprints
  • Table Grid of rows and columns for your readings
  • Tally Strokes grouped in fives, one for each thing seen
  • Thermometer What you check to learn the temperature
  • Trend Up, down or flat: where the dots on your paper are heading

Theories, Laws and Evidence 22

  • Anomaly Odd finding that does not fit the pattern
  • Citizen ___ science: research the general public helps to do
  • Consensus General agreement of nearly all the specialists
  • Correlation Two things rising together, which is no proof that one drives the other
  • Empirical Based on what the senses or a test pick up
  • Evidence What backs up a claim
  • Fact It is so, and you can look it up
  • Falsifiable Able to be shown wrong by a test
  • Inference Reasoned leap from clues: wet streets, so it rained
  • Journal Where new studies appear in print, issue after issue
  • Law Rule with a name such as Ohm's that describes what nature does
  • Logic Sound reasoning: if A and B hold, C must follow
  • Model Simplified stand-in for the real thing, such as a globe
  • Objective Based on what happened, not on what you hoped
  • Opinion A belief that no test can settle
  • Peer ___ review: work is judged by others in the same field
  • Pseudoscience Beliefs that say they are scientific but do not follow the method
  • Publish To put findings in print for all to read
  • Razor Occam's ___: prefer the explanation with the fewest assumptions
  • Skeptic Person who asks "How do you know?"
  • Theory Explanation that has held up to many checks, like germ ___
  • Thought Kind of test carried out only in the mind

Experiments That Made History 22

  • Alhazen Author of the Book of Optics, written between 1011 and 1021
  • Aristotle Ancient Greek whose view of falling bodies the tower story overturns
  • Bacon Englishman whose Novum Organum came out in 1620
  • Citrus Sour, juicy fruit group that did best in the 1747 scurvy test
  • Copernicus In 1514 he had the idea that the Sun sits at the center
  • Eclipse Sky event of 29 May 1919, used to test general relativity
  • Eddington British astronomer on the 1919 expedition to the island of Príncipe
  • Flask Round-bottomed glassware; an S-bend opening made one kind famous
  • Fleming Finder of penicillin, at St Mary's Hospital in London
  • Galileo Mathematics professor at the heart of the tower story of 1589 to 1592
  • Gauze Fine cloth over half the jars in the 1668 meat test
  • Latin Novum Organum appeared in this, not in English
  • Lind Ship's surgeon who tried out scurvy remedies at sea in 1747
  • Mold Growth on a lab dish that led to penicillin in 1928
  • Pasteur His boiled broth stayed clear in the late 1850s
  • Pisa City whose university employed the hero of the tower story
  • Popper Philosopher known for the falsifiability test of a scientific claim
  • Redi Italian who showed that maggots come from the eggs of flies
  • Serendipity Lucky accident; penicillin is a famous case
  • Starlight What the 1919 teams set out to watch as it bent past the Sun
  • Swan Bird whose curved neck names the glassware of a famous broth test
  • Twelve How many patients took part in the 1747 scurvy test

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site for science classes from grade 3 to grade 9, in five sets: steps of an investigation, variables and fair tests, measuring and plots, theories and evidence, and experiments that made history. Definitions, dates and figures were checked against English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and NASA's Space Place page What Is Science? (spaceplace.nasa.gov), in October 2026. Every person named in the history set died long ago. Licence: own work

How it works

This scientific method crossword puzzle fits Letter or A4, answer key included. The first puzzle has 12 basic words, among them Question, Hypothesis, Experiment, Variable, Control, Data and Conclusion, each with a clue of one short line.

Read the full guide

Five themed sets

Steps of an Investigation has Procedure, Materials, Analyze and Abstract. Variables and Fair Tests has Independent, Dependent, Placebo and Blind. Measuring, Numbers and Plots has Median, Outlier, Meniscus and Tally. Theories, Laws and Evidence has Theory, Law, Falsifiable and Peer. Experiments That Made History has Gauze, Flask, Citrus and Eclipse.

Experiments a class can retell

The history set is clued by real tests: the gauze-covered jars of 1668, the boiled broth of the late 1850s, the scurvy test of 1747 with its twelve patients, and the solar eclipse of 29 May 1919.

  • Print Scientific Method Basics before the first lab, and Variables and Fair Tests in the week projects are planned.

Questions and answers

Is there a scientific method crossword worksheet for 3rd grade?

Scientific Method Basics is the one to print: one-line clues for words such as Question, Predict, Observe, Measure and Graph. It suits grades 3 to 5, and the five themed sets suit grades 6 to 9. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

Does the scientific method crossword puzzle have an answer key?

Yes. The key comes out last, on a sheet of its own: the grid with its letters in and the answers in clue order. Printing is free and needs no account.

What are the steps of the scientific method?

One common outline: define a question, gather information, form a hypothesis, test it with an experiment, analyze the data, draw conclusions, publish the results and retest. The steps do not always come in that order.

What is the difference between an independent and a dependent variable?

The independent variable is the one the experimenter controls and changes. The dependent variable is the outcome that is expected to change in response. Both words are answers in Variables and Fair Tests.

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