Purpose
Students enrolled in the Molecular Cell Biology course of the Master of Science Preclinical Sciences (MSPCS) program at Mercer University School of Medicine (MUSM) often struggle with new terminology, concepts and principles, especially students without prior cell biology coursework during undergraduate years. Our goal in designing crossword (CW) puzzles based on Master’s level Molecular Cell Biology learning material was to assist students remember specific terminology while relying on their understanding of the material as well as enjoy the learning activity in a group setting.

Methods
Design of puzzles: CW puzzles and their clues were created for 10 of the 25 lecture sessions for the Molecular Cell Biology course. At the bottom of the page of each crossword puzzle, student teams will be required to circle their opinion regarding the puzzle: easy, moderately difficult, difficult; confusing. Their responses will help revise and improve the CW puzzles for future years.
     
Two different sets of clues were prepared. Half the CW puzzles have “definition” style clues. A student could perform a web search of the definition for the answer. Other puzzles have “cryptic” clues. Students would have to understand the material at a deeper level to arrive at the answer. Internet search of the cryptic clue would not likely find the answer. For example, clues designed for the word ‘chaperone’ are ‘factor that assists correct folding of newly synthesized protein’ (definition style clue) and ‘Will they also help fold her clothes correctly? Madams Calnexin and Calreticulin will accompany Lady Newbiepeptide on her first trip to Paris’ (cryptic clue).  “Cryptic” clues were designed to help form memorable associations in students minds that would help them remember tough concepts and terminology. 

Implementation
CW puzzles and their clues will be posted on Canvas after corresponding lectures. Groups of 6-8 students will download the crosswords and solve them as a team. A hard copy of the completed CW puzzle will be submitted by each group to the instructor a week later for grading. 

Evaluation
Student opinion will be surveyed at the end of semester regarding effectiveness of the CW puzzles. Likert-type survey questions will gauge whether students consider the CW puzzles useful for remembering definitions, facts and terminology and whether students prefer the ‘definition’ type compared to ‘cryptic’ clues. Survey answers will be collated and analyzed. Further analysis will seek correlation of student grades to use of CW puzzles and grade correlations with “definition” or “cryptic” type clues.

Results
CW puzzles will be implemented for the Fall 2024 MSPCS class. Evaluation of results is expected by end of 2024.

Conclusions
We describe an ongoing study where we have designed CW puzzles with “definition” style and “cryptic” clues to assess whether this enjoyable group activity will assist MSPCS students to more easily master Molecular Cell Biology.