As a health science teacher, you know that medical terminology is one of the foundational concepts essential for success in the industry. After all, accurately describing the human body and its functions is crucial for a successful career in the medical field.
However, with so many medical terminology curriculum options available, choosing the right resource for your classroom can be overwhelming.
As a dedicated Career and Technical Education (CTE) provider, we’re often asked about the best medical terminology resources available. In this article, you’ll explore the most common medical terminology curriculum providers, including:
- BE Publishing
- Cengage
- eDynamic Learning
- GW Publishing
- National Health Association (NHA)
- Savvas Learning Company
Afterward, you’ll better understand each curriculum provider, their benefits, drawbacks, and who the curriculum is best for to make the right choice for your classroom.
iCEV for Medical Terminology
As a comprehensive CTE solution, iCEV offers extensive resources for teaching medical terminology in high school.
With iCEV, you can teach medical terminology as part of a full library of CTE health science courses. Each course comes complete with pre-built lesson plans, interactive activities, and formative and summative assessments. Teachers also gain access to a robust learning management system to track student progress.
What Are the Benefits of iCEV?
iCEV provides an extensive curriculum for teachers to meet standards for medical terminology. With a single subscription, instructors receive access to the entire health science curriculum with ready-to-use lessons, activities, and assessments.
The flexibility of iCEV allows teachers to tailor their instruction to the needs of every student, including special populations. Plus, the curriculum is continually updated to reflect changes in standards and keep students prepared.
What Are the Drawbacks of iCEV?
While our health science curriculum is a great fit for many classrooms, it isn’t the right solution for everyone. Instructors who want to teach medical terminology in a more traditional format might prefer a print-based curriculum.
Likewise, educators who are only looking for rudimentary coverage of the basic medical terms necessary may want a more limited, test-prep solution.
Finally, teachers who prefer to craft lesson plans from scratch might not utilize the full library of premade plans available with iCEV.
Who Should Consider iCEV?
Ultimately, iCEV is designed to thoroughly teach medical terminology to high school students. Through age-appropriate multimedia content and engaging activities, students learn the fundamental terminology and concepts essential to a working knowledge of the human body, its systems, and diseases and disorders.
iCEV is a great choice for educators who want to offer a comprehensive blended learning experience. It’s not for teachers who favor traditional instruction methods with less interactivity.
1. B.E. Publishing Medical Terminology: A Multiple Learning Styles Approach Curriculum
B.E. Publishing is a CTE curriculum provider that has been in the space for over 20 years. Focusing on textbooks and eBooks, B.E. Publishing provides curriculum for many subject areas, including Health Science.
Currently, B.E. Publishing offers a Medical Terminology curriculum designed specifically for high school students as an introduction to medical terminology, the inner workings of the human body, and the processes that explain how the body works and what doesn’t work when we’re ill.
The curriculum provides students with step-by-step instructions to help them recognize prefixes, suffixes, and root words to speak and write with confidence. Your students will learn the anatomy and physiology that medical terms represent and explore case studies that show them how terminology is used in medicine.
What Are the Benefits of This Curriculum?
With B.E. Publishing designing its comprehensive medical terminology curriculum specifically for high school students, there are a multitude of benefits to implementing the eBook in your classroom. One of those benefits is the amount of resources provided to you and your students.
For students, the eBook begins by breaking down different learning styles. With such a complex subject as medical terminology, having different approaches for each learning style can be a valuable asset to your students. The eBook also takes this a step further by incorporating learning tips throughout to define easy ways to remember, understand, or apply the content the students are learning.
Within medical terminology, your students must understand prefixes, roots, and suffixes of terms to be successful in the class. B.E. Publishing helps students by providing color-coded tables for each body system to build words from prefixes, roots, and suffixes, including each morpheme's definitions and pronunciations. This organization and color recognition is a great connection resource for students.
You can also help your students expand on the information they are learning with in-text clinical scenarios to introduce medical documentation. The exercise includes patient exam notes and lab reports followed by discussion questions to help students apply their knowledge of medical terminology in a real-world scenario.
Within the eBook, B.E. Publishing supplies teachers with a course guide that includes lesson and chapter outlines, highlighting the main topics within a section. You will also have access to answer keys, slide presentations, and some labeling, matching, and crossword exercises.
What Are the Drawbacks of This Curriculum?
While the Medical Terminology eBook provides many benefits to both students and educators, there are some drawbacks that you should be aware of.
First, if interactive courseware is crucial to your program, consider looking for another resource, as B.E. Publishing does not include any interactive activities within the eBook. While there are vocabulary-themed exercises, there is not an interactive element designed to take students deeper in their understanding of medical terms.
Secondly, if your school utilizes a Learning Management System (LMS), the Medical Terminology eBook LMS integrations leave much to be desired. While you can download a PDF version of the Medical Terminology eBook to upload into your LMS, that is the extent of B.E. Publishing’s LMS integrations, which could cause challenges when implementing the curriculum into your classroom.
Finally, B.E. Publishing does not provide support to special population students within their eBook. This can be a large obstacle to overcome, especially if students need accommodations, modifications or extensions built into the curriculum.
Who Should Consider This Curriculum?
The Medical Terminology eBook is a great resource for those looking for a comprehensive solution in their health science programs. With many learning tips and additional resources, you can rest assured that your students will have the base knowledge needed to further their education or careers in the health science industry.
However, B.E. Publishing’s Medical Terminology eBook might not be a good fit if you already possess vocabulary resources and are looking for a more hands-on, interactive resource.
2. Cengage Medical Terminology Curriculum
National Geographic Learning, a part of Cengage, publishes a curriculum developed by CTE teachers and industry professionals.
The Medical Terminology for Health Professionals, 9th Edition textbook combines interactive activities and digital learning solutions to empower students to move from memorization of medical terms to mastery.
The text is organized to walk students through each body system to help them master medical terminology and build confidence to succeed in other health-related courses and a professional career in the health science industry.
What Are the Benefits of This Curriculum?
Cengage’s Medical Terminology textbook, Medical Terminology for Health Professionals 9th Edition, supplies students and educators with various resources to help them succeed when implementing the curriculum in the classroom with the help of their digital resource, MindTap.
The MindTap platform is an online learning experience that provides students with curriculum, tools, and resources to create a positive learning environment across all subject areas, including health science.
Primarily, the textbook emphasizes pronouncing medical terms correctly. Students can check their pronunciation by speaking the term out loud and having the MindTap system analyze it for correct pronunciation.
Additionally, the textbook provides “quick checks” where students can match a morpheme to its definition, building a term using morphemes, vocabulary, and spelling.
Students are also exposed to real-world scenarios through Career Opportunities, Health Profession Profiles, Research Roundups where students research a provided prompt, Medical Mystery Case Studies and Critical Thinking Exercises included in the textbook.
The Cengage LMS also allows students to create custom study guides, track course progress and includes a text-to-speech function for any special population students or English Language Learners (ELL).
What Are the Drawbacks of This Curriculum?
While the textbook is a comprehensive resource for students, newer educators may find the lack of lesson plans a significant obstacle to overcome. Especially with the average educator teaching multiple preps, preparing your own lesson plans can be time-consuming.
Additionally, the lack of variety of activities could be an issue. The Medical Terminology textbook does provide matching activities, flashcards, multiple-choice questions, and writing prompts. However, these activities become repetitive throughout the text and could leave your students disengaged as you progress through the course.
Finally, students may find the pronunciation videos helpful. However, Cengage does not provide additional multimedia content for students to engage with.
With a primarily text-based resource and lack of varied activities, you may find it increasingly difficult to keep students engaged and motivated, especially with a difficult topic like medical terminology.
Who Should Consider This Curriculum?
If you’re looking for a comprehensive print and digital solution that comes with helpful resources for your classroom, the Medical Terminology for Health Professionals 9th Edition textbook might be a good fit for your classroom.
However, if you’re a first-year teacher or new to health science, the lack of pre-made lesson plans and varied activities could make creating an engaging learning environment difficult.
3. eDynamic Learning Medical Terminology
As one of the largest publishers of Career and Technical Education (CTE) and elective curriculum resources, eDynamic Learning provides both educators and students with the resources needed.
eDynamic Learning offers two courses on medical terminology. Medical Terminology 1A: Introduction and Medical Terminology 1B: Discovering Word Foundations.
Medical Terminology 1A and Medical Terminology 1B are both semester-long courses, so by combining the two, you will have enough content to cover an entire school year.
The content is designed and written with engaging curriculum narratives that use a backward design methodology to support best practices on how today’s students learn. Each lesson is chunked into bite-sized, customizable units to best fit the needs of your classroom.
What Are the Benefits of This Curriculum?
eDynamic Learning supplies many benefits to health science teachers and their students, including engaging activities, student-led learning, and features to support special population students.
Your students can jump right into mastering medical terminology with a multimedia curriculum that includes text, graphics, and videos. They can test their knowledge throughout the units with automatically graded quizzes and engaging activities like flashcards, projects, spelling checks, and discussion prompts.
Meanwhile, you can check for students who are falling behind with the eDynamic Learning student progress tracker and student to-do lists. In fact, your special population students will also receive resources like text-to-speech, translations, definitions for selected words, and a feature that collects all highlighted sections at the end of the unit to create notes for them.
What Are the Drawbacks of This Curriculum?
While eDynamic Learning offers many valuable resources, it’s missing a few key features that most curriculum options include.
First, the curriculum does provide spelling checks. However, there is no way for your students to check the pronunciation of the word.
Second, this curriculum does not have the opportunity for career exploration. Many other curriculum providers supply additional resources for students to tie the content to a potential career and expose students to the health science industry, but eDynamic Learning is lacking in this area.
In addition, eDynamic Learning’s decision to split its course between two semesters could pose difficulties for teachers who want to give their students a complete introduction to medical terminology.
Who Should Consider This Curriculum?
The eDynamic Learning Medical Terminology courses are best suited for educators looking to expand their classes from a semester course to a full school year.
However, these courses are most likely not a good fit for someone looking for a comprehensive semester-long course or looking to incorporate additional career exploration opportunities for students.
4. Goodheart-Willcox Medical Terminology
Goodheart-Willcox (G-W) has been a trusted educational publisher since 1921. They pride themselves on providing high-quality, standards-aligned content produced in collaboration with authors, trustworthy reviewers, and industry‑focused trade associations.
The Introduction to Medical Terminology, 2nd Edition textbook, is designed for grades 9-12 and focuses on the essentials of medical terminology, foundational concepts of human anatomy and physiology, and common medical terms related to the body systems.
With a student-friendly approach, the chapter content is logically organized by introducing relevant medical word parts, followed by an anatomy and physiology overview, coverage of applicable diseases and conditions, diagnostic procedures, surgical and therapeutic treatments, and drug therapies.
What Are the Benefits of This Curriculum?
G-W provides many unique benefits, including interactive activities, and Career and Technical Student Organization (CTSO) and industry certification alignments.
Outside of the typical vocabulary activities, the Introduction to Medical Terminology, 2nd Edition textbook also includes engaging activities that draw to real-world experiences like the Patient Medical Record activities, Workplace Skills Labs, case studies, and even scavenger hunts.
The textbook also draws connections to HOSA competitive events, a CTSO for future health professionals. These connections help students build their foundational knowledge and interest in joining a student organization and possibly a lifelong career.
Additionally, the curriculum correlates to the YouScience® Industry Certifications Medical Terminology credential, helping students obtain certificates that increase their employability in the health science industry.
What Are the Drawbacks of This Curriculum?
While G-W offers many benefits, the challenge of using a print textbook that does not include additional resources can be difficult for some to overcome.
While the Introduction to Medical Terminology, 2nd Edition, was published in 2023, it will eventually become outdated and need to be replaced, which can be costly for schools.
Outside of the textbook, there are other resources to support students and health science teachers, like G-W Ignite, their companion website, as well as instructor resources and a student workbook. However, those resources incur additional costs and are not included in purchasing a print textbook, making the overall commitment expensive for some.
Who Should Consider This Curriculum?
The Introduction to Medical Terminology is a good fit for health science educators looking to implement a comprehensive print textbook with engaging activities in their classrooms.
However, this textbook might not be suitable for those who want to have up-to-date content consistently or those with a limited budget for their curriculum resources.
5. NHA’s Medical Terminology Curriculum Option
The National Healthcareer Association (NHA) is best known for hosting health science industry certifications. They also provide a curriculum for various subject areas, including medical terminology.
NHA's Medical Terminology is designed for students taking a medical terminology foundational education course, used to build their knowledge to succeed as they continue their education in the health science field.
What Are the Benefits of This Curriculum?
NHA’s Medical Terminology provides benefits like instructor resources and various assessments and activities.
For health science teachers, NHA supplies an implementation guide covering instructional design, module features, and implementation strategies.
Additionally, the curriculum gives educators visibility to student progress through detailed reporting on course progress, time spent on tasks and student progress. You can also track your student’s progression and understanding with pre-tests, end-of-module quizzes, and final exams.
Your students can feel confident in their knowledge by completing the provided worksheets and case studies that walk them through pronunciation practice, word building, and interactive flashcards.
What Are the Drawbacks of This Curriculum?
While NHA does provide plenty of educator resources and assessments for student understanding, it does not dive deeper into the overall subject area, which could leave you wanting more.
NHA’s Medical Terminology resource serves as a focused platform for teaching students crucial vocabulary, and it won’t go beyond the bounds of those topics. Because of that, it should be supplemented with additional content regarding the body and systems that the vocabulary refers to so that students have a full scope of the body functions and the appropriate terminology.
Who Should Consider This Curriculum?
If you need a supplemental program that focuses almost exclusively on teaching your students appropriate health science terminology, these materials will probably be a good fit for you. They provide ample opportunity to build knowledge and check for student comprehension.
However, if you need a comprehensive curriculum resource that provides a deep understanding of body systems and medical terminology, this might not be the best option for your classroom.
6. Savvas Learning Company Medical Terminology
Savvas Learning Company is a well-known educational textbook publisher.
In partnership with Pearson, they offer MyLab, an online learning platform that provides student and educator resources combined with the Medical Terminology: A Living Language, 5th Edition eBook.
The textbook introduces students to the anatomy and physiology of body systems and their corresponding medical terms. For each body system, it provides broad coverage of anatomy, physiology, pathology, diagnostic procedures, treatment procedures, and pharmacology to give students the full picture when describing the body and its functions.
What Are the Benefits of This Curriculum?
The partnership between Savvas Learning Company and Pearson’s MyLab creates a variety of resources for both educators and students, including a teacher version of the eBook. This resource includes tools to implement the curriculum such as teaching strategies and answer keys.
Additionally, the customized instruction boxes include accommodations and additional activities for more or less advanced, ELL, special needs, and at-risk students.
There are also “practice as you go” activities for a quick check-in with various applications. At the conclusion of each chapter, there are activity prompts, case studies, and critical thinking questions to deepen your students' understanding of medical terms.
What Are the Drawbacks of This Curriculum?
The most crucial drawback of Savvas Learning Company’s Medical Terminology textbook is the lack of comprehensive resources. For example, there are teacher resources as well as additional student activities. However, those are separate from the textbook and must be purchased.
Additionally, while many additional resources are available for purchase, none are available for LMS integrations, making it more challenging to implement in classrooms with existing systems in place.
Finally, even with the additional resources, the teacher tools are still missing final assessments or pre-made lessons, making the learning curve for new teachers more difficult.
Who Should Consider This Curriculum?
The Medical Terminology: A Living Language is best suited for health science educators searching for an entire learning system, with the budget to purchase all additional resources provided by Savvas Learning Company.
However, those new to the classroom or the health science subject area could find the lack of educator resources a large obstacle to overcome. Additionally, those with a limited budget could find purchasing all necessary components too expensive.
Which Medical Terminology Curriculum Is Best For My Students?
Determining the right medical terminology curriculum can be difficult, especially with so many options for you to choose from. To make the best choice, you must first consider the needs of your students and program.
Any of these curriculum providers can help you ensure that your students have a solid understanding of medical terms and the human body so they can succeed in health science.
But if you're looking for a comprehensive medical terminology curriculum to meet your standards and set your students up for success, consider iCEV. The iCEV health science curriculum includes a medical terminology course plus a library of additional resources in HealthCenter21. Together, you can use these resources to provide a seamless learning experience for your students.
If iCEV sounds like it could be right for you, sign up for a free trial. You'll receive full curriculum access to decide if it's a good fit for your health science program.
