How to Make Vocabulary Review Fun!

Vocabulary plays a pivotal role in science class, serving as the essential building blocks of understanding and communicating difficult concepts. As students delve into scientific subjects, they encounter so many specialized terms it can be overwhelming to them.

Regularly reviewing vocabulary isn't merely about memorization, but rather a crucial step towards true comprehension. By revisiting and reinforcing these terms, students solidify their grasp of the content, and they make connections for your whole unit.

There are wonderful online reviews like Quizlet, Kahoot and Blooket. By the way, If you are not familiar with these websites, GO CHECK THEM OUT NOW!

I use all of those sites for test and vocabulary reviews but when I was teaching Biology a few years ago, I was trying to come up with a creative way for my students to practice reviewing the terms. That is when I began making vocabulary tarsia puzzles!

Students get 23 triangle pieces and they join up the sides that match up. For example BB would be a match to “example of homozygous alleles” and Mendel would match to “Father of Genetics”

They can work alone or with a partner. I have used these for years for many content areas and they are always popular with my students.

Card match ups were my usual go to activity but now that we do these the students are much more engaged because the design requires more critical thinking and it has the fun puzzle aspect as well. They can use their notes or work on this as test review.

Student working on vocabulary tarsia puzzle.