Anatomy And Physiology Games

In this article, you’ll find five anatomy and physiology games for your CTE health science classes:

5 Top Anatomy and Physiology Games for CTE Health Science

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Coming from a family of educators, Brad knows both the joys and challenges of teaching well. Through his own teaching background, he’s experienced both firsthand. As a writer for iCEV, Brad’s goal is to help teachers empower their students by listening to educators’ concerns and creating content that answers their most pressing questions about career and technical education.

Anatomy and physiology can be one of the most challenging topics to teach in CTE health science classes. Between having students learn body systems, memorize tricky terminology, and prepare for exams, your course can quickly become dull and cumbersome.

Thankfully, there are many fun anatomy and physiology activities and games you can play to keep your students excited and engaged. Games provide a break from lectures and can make it easy for students to master the terms they’ll need to know to work in healthcare.

In this article, you’ll find five anatomy and physiology games for your CTE health science classes:

1. Do the Hokey Pokey
2. Play in the Anatomy Arcade
3. Schedule a Candy Dissection
4. Hold a Kinesiology Dance Party
5. Play Simon Says

After reading, you’ll have the activities you need to make learning anatomy and physiology enjoyable and rewarding for your students.

1. Do the Hokey Pokey

The Hokey Pokey is best known as a popular children’s song and dance. But as CTE health science teacher Kathy Regan discovered, it’s a fantastic tool for teaching students to memorize essential anatomy and physiology terminology.

“I play Hokey Pokey with names of bones,” Kathy shares. “It’s really silly. I’ll say a bone like ‘coccyx,’ and they put their backside in and out and shake. It’s kind of juvenile, but at the end of a long day, the students get a chuckle out of it.”

To do the Hokey Pokey in your classroom, arrange the furniture so there is plenty of space for your students to move around.

To start, you can choose any bone name you like to see if your students remember their location. It’s good to start with some of the most well-known bone names before progressing into the trickier ones. Then, check and make sure students are sticking the correct bone in to shake it all about!

If your students really enjoy this activity, consider using it as a way to end your class period on a regular basis (such as every Friday). To mix it up, designate a different student to lead each time. This adds a bit of extra fun as the student leader tries to think of bone names on the fly!

Overall, if you want an interactive activity that you can use to reinforce information on any given day, Hokey Pokey is a great way to do just that.

2. Play in the Anatomy Arcade

Donna Barata, a medical assisting teacher in California, likes mixing up her anatomy and physiology lessons with interactive online games.

Her favorite website is Anatomy Arcade , which includes dozens of games and activities related to:

• General anatomy and physiology
• Skeletal system
• Articular system
• Muscular system
• Circulatory system
• Respiratory system
• Nervous system
• Digestive system
• Endocrine system

Each game has a difficulty rating that indicates how much knowledge a student needs to complete it successfully. This rating system is great for helping you decide when to include these activities in your syllabus.

Of all of the activities on the site, Donna has two favorites: Whack-a-Bone and Poke-a-Muscle.

The Whack-a-Bone Game

The Whack-a-Bone game focuses on the major bones of the body and is a great way to reinforce what your students have previously learned.

The game is easy to learn and involves searching for and clicking the correct location of each bone named in the level.

The Poke-a-Muscle Game

Poke-a-Muscle helps students learn about the major superficial muscles of the body.

It involves using an “x-ray scanner” to locate the correct muscle and then ‘poke’ it by clicking your mouse.

Though the instructions are simple, this game will thoroughly test your students’ knowledge of the muscular system!

Overall, the Anatomy Arcade games provide flexibility and variety and are easy to add to your existing lessons.

3. Schedule a Candy Dissection

In the proper context, using candy in the classroom can be as educational as it is motivating. Consider hosting a candy dissection in your classroom to help your students master their anatomical terms, directions, body planes, and cavities.

Students will have fun literally playing with their food while mastering important terminology that will help them in the medical field.

While you can have your students dissect any candy they would like, gummy candies that look like people or animals often work best.

Some examples of candies students can easily dissect include:

• Gummy Bears
• Sour Patch Kids
• Gummy Pet Rat

As students take apart their candy, they’ll have to identify proper medical terms to demonstrate their understanding.

If you prefer materials you can reuse, you can complete the same exercise using modeling clay or Play-Doh. Either way, your students will have a colorful and memorable learning experience that will help them come exam time.

4. Hold a Kinesiology Dance Party

Few activities encompass movement and fun like dancing, so allow your students to get creative with a kinesiology dance party!

The dance party game works best when you divide your class into groups. Consider placing between three and five students in each group, depending on how many students are in your class. Then, assign each group to create their own choreographed dance using defined criteria.

Each dance should require students to incorporate and identify different anatomy and physiology terms. For example, you might ask your students to include:

• 3 Body planes
• 12 Anatomical directions
• 16 movements

Have created and correctly identified each movement in their dance. Then, hold a dance party where each group performs in front of the class.

After the party, you can have students vote on the best group and hand out a prize to the winners. All in all, a dance party can be a fun change of pace in your anatomy and physiology curriculum .

5. Play Simon Says

Simon Says is a classic playground game you can use to reinforce important anatomy and physiology concepts in your classroom.

Vicki Lyle, a health science teacher from Alabama, uses Simon Says with her students to reinforce range of motion (ROM) and muscle movements. You can use this activity to conclude a muscular system unit and prepare for an exam.

To implement this activity, compile a list of the ROM movements and muscular system vocabulary you want to reinforce. This should include types of body movements made by skeletal muscles and the names of body parts students will move.

Before starting this activity, make sure everyone understands how to play.

Here are a few pointers:

• This competitive game ends with one student left standing (or when time is up).
• If you give a command and say “Simon Says” before it, everyone should follow your instructions.
• If you don’t say “Simon Says,” but students complete the action, they are ‘out’ and should sit down for the remainder of the game.

You may want to do a few examples before officially starting to ensure everyone understands. Then it’s time to start calling out directions from your list!

Be sure to vary the ROM movements and include each one in combination with different muscles and body parts. Continue to throw out combinations until one student is left standing–the winner!

Make Anatomy and Physiology Engaging For Your Students

Studying anatomy and physiology can be daunting for your students. And when they don’t participate in your classes, they risk not learning the essential knowledge and skills they’ll need to succeed in health science.

Thankfully, it’s easy to spice up your lessons with anatomy and physiology games. Depending on what A&P topics you are emphasizing, any of these activities could make an impact and better engage your students.

But sometimes, a few games and activities aren’t enough to ensure your students have mastered the material and are ready for exams.

One way to ensure your students succeed with anatomy and physiology is to use a comprehensive curriculum system like HealthCenter21. HealthCenter21 includes 200 hours of A&P curriculum and provides a variety of activities, lessons, and projects to mix things up and engage students.

Read this article to learn more about how to teach anatomy and physiology with HealthCenter21 . You’ll discover how to get the most out of the curriculum while preparing your A&P students for success.

Top 11 Free and Paid Anatomy and Physiology Games

Anatomy and physiology games can be super helpful when you’re a med student or really in any other profession that requires a working understanding of the human body. We put together a list of free and paid anatomy and physiology games and apps that can help you test your and build your knowledge.

Our top pick overall is Purpose Games Anatomy. This anatomy study game lets you work on both basic and advanced anatomy, so it’s great for all levels of learning.

With multiple interactive anatomy games and quizzes, this site is great for learners at all levels!

11 Free Anatomy and Physiology Games

Purpose Games Anatomy

Purpose Games Anatomy has tons of different anatomy quizzes for people at all different levels. In addition to human anatomy, they also have cellular, plant, and animal anatomy quizzes. You should be able to search and find whatever you’re working on to practice.

• Multiple image quizzes for different topics
• Includes human, animal, plant, and cellular anatomy
• Basic and advanced quizzes for all levels
• Very popular

With multiple interactive anatomy games and quizzes, this site is great for learners at all levels!

Anatomist

Anatomist is an app available for Mac and iOS systems. You can examine 24 different areas of the body to learn the intricate anatomy. There are more than 3,500 identifications that also include pathology pictures, allowing you to tell sick anatomy from healthy.

• App for iOS and Mac devices
• More than 3,500 anatomy identifications
• Can explore 24 areas of the body
• Link to Facebook to compete with others

Available for iPhone and iPad, this quiz game lets you tackle every aspect of human anatomy!

We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.

BioDigital

Less of a game but more a truly immersive experience for those trying to expand their knowledge for free, BioDigital is a phenomenal tool! I’m absolutely amazed by the visuals as well as the descriptions – and it’s free for limited use. If you do decide to upgrade to get unlimited 3D models, then it’s $19.99 per year.

• Absolutely amazing visuals and diagrams
• Information with each diagram
• The chance to see the male and female 3D anatomy models for free
• Customized 3D models

You can see the male and female anatomy interactive 3D models for FREE.

Kenhub

Kenhub states that people really can learn anatomy by playing their games. All of their quizzes use spaced repetition, which is a learning tool that helps cement concepts in your brain. The algorithm learns about what needs improvement and helps you focus on those areas!

• Anatomy games based on learning
• Quizzes that used spaced repetition
• Algorithm helps you strengthen your weak spots
• Many different types of game available

By creating a free account, you get access to all of Kenhub’s anatomy learning games!

Free Anatomy Quiz

Studying isn’t always the most exciting thing. That’s why this website exists: to gamify the process. Rather than having interactive games, they give you more than 200 multiple choice quizzes. These cover anatomy, physiology, and pathology. Plus, you can do the quizzes over again whenever you want.

• Site with over 200 multiple choice quizzes
• Covers anatomy, physiology, and pathology
• Great for nursing students and massage therapists in training
• Quizzes can be repeated whenever you want

Great for nursing students, this website has more than 200 anatomy quizzes to practice!

Get Body Smart

Get Body Smart is a website that helps people learn human anatomy and physiology online. It has animated narrations with text and speech, plus quizzes to test your memory. They’re partnered with Kenhub for people who want a more advanced learning system.

• Quizzes and animated text
• Teaches you about different body systems
• Breaks learning down into different categories
• Super easy to use

An online place to learn, this is great if you want narration to teach you basic anatomy!

Anatomy and Physiology Quiz

This educational app can be found in the Google Play Store. Though it’s not as advanced as some other options, it does have 180 total questions. During the quiz, you’ll learn lots of trivia about physiology, anatomy, and medicine.

• Google Play app
• Simple design
• 180 question quiz
• Includes trivia and cool facts

Available in the Google Play Store, this app is great for people learning anatomy!

Gray’s Anatomy

This is another app available for download from the Google Play store. It does include some ads so that you can access the content for free. In addition to teaching you about multiple anatomy systems and positions, it has medical quizzes and a medical dictionary.

• Google Play app
• Images and info about different systems
• Includes medical quizzes
• Includes a medical dictionary

With a simple interface and multiple anatomical systems, this app is great for learning!

Quizlet Anatomy

Quizlet is a website where people can create and share their own study tools. You can find multiple different anatomy study sets that have been created by the user base. Since there are so many tools, you’re bound to find one that works for your needs!

• Online study tools website
• Anatomy quizzes created by the community
• Wide variety to choose from

Another one of the most popular study sites, Quizlet has tons of great study sets for different students!

Noteworthy Paid Anatomy and Physiology Apps

Essential Anatomy 5

Essential Anatomy 5 functions as a massive, interactive medical dictionary. It has explanations of more than 8,200 structures and is used by medical professionals worldwide. In fact, most hospitals and universities use this app as a reference guide!

• Great reference guide
• More than 8,200 structures
• Tons of content and information
• Used by medical schools and hospitals around the globe

An anatomy app with more features than any other on the market, this is a must-have for medical students!

Real Bodywork Anatomy

This app is designed to teach you about the muscles in the human body. It comes with 141 images of different muscles, along with information about their names and functions. You also get access to multiple 3D models, an audio pronunciation guide, and a quiz maker.

This review by user JulieD5155 shows that she’s been using this app as a reference for massage therapy. For $2.99, this is an awesome resource to have to improve your work.

• Good for learning about different muscles
• Includes 141 individual muscle images and notes
• Seven 3D models and six videos
• Audio pronunciation guide and quiz maker included

Designed as a study tool, this reference guide makes it super easy to learn anatomy!