Activities for High School Students Using Medical Terms & Abbreviations

Use the premise of the TV game show "Jeopardy" to quiz your students. There are online programs you can use to set up your own Jeopardy board, or you can also design a PowerPoint presentation that can function in a similar manner. You can also use a standard blackboard or whiteboard for your Jeopardy game.

Begin by splitting the board into five columns. These columns will contain your categories, which can include topics such as diseases, units of measurement or medical procedures. Grid your board and leave at least five boxes under each topic column, which will contain the questions, posed as answers. Attach a value to each box. Use a separate piece of paper to keep track of the questions you will ask. As a student selects an "answer" from a box on the board, erase it so it won't be asked again.

Send your students on a virtual scavenger hunt. Divide the class into groups and assign each group a list of terms. Give the students adequate time to find pictures and definitions of the terms on their list, and then require each group to give a presentation about those terms to the entire class.

Assign your students a writing project that involves the terms and abbreviations they will be using. Since the focus of the assignment isn't on a specific form of writing, leave this activity open-ended. Allow students to create poems or even songs. It can also be fun when assigned as a group project.

Design medical scenarios using the terms your class is studying. One option is to have mock patients with symptoms the students must discover and identify. You can also create fake medical reports and have students decipher the meanings of the words on the reports. This project can be done either individually or in small groups.