Health Science | HealthCenter21 | National Health Science Assessment | NCHSE | National Health Science Standards
As a health science teacher, you’ve likely looked into either HealthCenter21 or the NCHSE Health Science Curriculum enhancements, and are wondering whether or not the two can be used side-by-side to help you in the classroom. After all, these two resources are robust and complex, and figuring out ways to integrate them can be confusing and overwhelming.
Teachers often share these feelings to AES, and come to us with questions about whether the two resources are compatible, unsure where to even begin in using them together. To answer these questions and help you along, we spoke with Rhonda Evatt and Katrina Haynes, the two authors of the Enhancements.
In this article, you’ll discover tips about how to use the NCHSE Health Science Curriculum Enhancements and AES’ HealthCenter21 together to teach your classes.
In the process, we’ll answer four specific questions:
- Why Do Teachers Use HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements Together?
- What Can I Teach Using HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements Together?
- How Do Teachers Use HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements in Their Classes?
- How Can I Use HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements to Prepare My Students for the National Health Science Assessment?
By the end of this article, you’ll have a greater understanding of how to integrate HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Health Science Curriculum Enhancements in order to craft a more well-rounded course.
Why Do Teachers Use HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements Together?
There are several key reasons teachers can use HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements together. After all, they’re compatible in several ways, and have a lot in common with each other when it comes to teaching health science.
Both Cover Foundational Health Science Material in Different Ways
At their cores, HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Curriculum Enhancements are very similar: both are digital resources that CTE instructors employ to help teach their foundational health science courses.
However, it’s important to emphasize that the NCHSE Enhancements are meant to be a supplemental resource, while HealthCenter21 can serve as a core curriculum.
In other words, HealthCenter21 can be used entirely on its own to teach introductory health science classes, while the NCHSE Enhancements are not meant to. Instead, the Enhancements are specifically designed to “enhance” an existing curriculum.
Because one is a curriculum and the other is a curriculum enhancer, it’s only natural that HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements complement each other when used side-by-side.
Want more information on what NCHSE is, or what standards the NCHSE Enhancements were developed to meet? Check out our articles: What Is NCHSE? and What Are the National Health Science Standards?
Both Are Blended Learning Resources
HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements are both blended learning resources. This means they use a combination of in-person and digital learning to teach students, which has several benefits.
Specifically, blended learning combines traditional teaching methods--like lectures--with educational technology--like videos or digital activities--to teach a more diverse body of learners and simultaneously increase student retention.
Because both HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements are blended learning resources, they have natural compatibility with one another, as each is designed around the same teaching strategy.
The NCHSE Enhancements Were Developed with HealthCenter21 In Mind
“I was developing [the Enhancements] so they could be used side-by-side [with AES].”
Rhonda Evatt
Health science instructor
Developer of the NCHSE Enhancements
Another reason HealthCenter21 is so compatible with the NCHSE Enhancements is because the Enhancements were designed with HealthCenter21 in mind.
Rhonda Evatt, one of the developers of the NCHSE Enhancements, uses HealthCenter21 and appreciates its structure and material. Part of the reason she designed the NCHSE Enhancements herself was to more easily use the Enhancements to reinforce HealthCenter21 in her classroom. Some of the material with the Enhancements is even drawn directly from HealthCenter21.
Because the NCHSE Enhancements were developed with HealthCenter21 in mind, they are well-tailored to reinforce the AES curriculum.
What Can You Teach Using HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements Together?
HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements are compatible in several ways, so it’s no surprise they can be used together to cover several topics effectively.
After all, they were designed for course material, and when teaching certain classes, using them in tandem might be far more efficient than using either of them alone.
Courses and units that you can use HealthCenter21 with the NCHSE Enhancements to teach include:
- Introductory Health Science Courses - Both HealthCenter21 and NCHSE were developed to teach foundational health science courses. If this is the course you’re teaching, using HealthCenter21 and the Enhancements alongside each other would work well.
- Career Readiness Units - Health science isn’t all about technical skill. Teachers often take the Job Seeking and Career Development modules within HealthCenter21 and combine them with similar career readiness units within the Enhancements to teach their students these essential skills. The student certificates present within HealthCenter21 are also valuable for building student resumes and digital portfolios.
- Anatomy and Physiology Units - Many of the anatomical images present in the NCHSE Enhancements are taken from HealthCenter21. The sections in the Enhancements specifically expand upon HealthCenter21’s Anatomy and Physiology material. Using the two together, then, will allow teachers to more fully explore Anatomy and Physiology as a topic.
- CPR Units - The CPR material within the NCHSE Enhancements is largely drawn straight from HealthCenter21, to the point that it’s actually marked as AES material within the Enhancements themselves. The self-assessments, quizzes, and activities that HealthCenter21 provides make it a valuable tool to teach CPR alongside the Enhancements.
These topics are some of the most compatible if you seek to use HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements together. Often, this is because the NCHSE material on some of these is drawn straight from HealthCenter21 and expanded upon, which makes them fit naturally well together.
How Do Teachers Use HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements in Their Classes?
HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements can be used together to teach specific courses and units, but there are other ways the two resources can be combined to get the most out of each.
For an overview on pairing HealthCenter21 with the NCHSE Enhancements, watch this video from AES Director of Product, Adam Durst:
Flipping Your Classroom
Flipping your classroom is a kind of blended learning in which students do the usual classroom work at home, thereby saving class time for in-depth discussion, project work, and skill training.
For example, students might read from a textbook or watch a lecture video before they come into class, then spend the class period developing the skills they first learned from their out-of-class prework.
HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements can both be helpful when it comes to flipping your classroom. This is because both are blended learning resources that often rely on students teaching themselves via digital material. That makes it easy to assign your students prework from either resource that they can then complete before class time.
For HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements, this could mean assigning students eLearning lessons, videos, and self-assessments before class so that when they come in, they’re ready to expand upon the knowledge they’ve already gained.
“I use HealthCenter21 to flip my classroom. The students have to do their lesson--and the practice quiz--prior to class. Then I’m going to talk about it, they can ask questions, and I’m going to explain some things they don’t understand. And then we’re going to do an activity.”
Health science instructor
Developer of the NCHSE Enhancements
Ensuring Students Catch Up and Keep Up
These days, hybrid and digital learning have grown in importance to the point that most classrooms have alternatives in place if students can’t physically make it due to sickness or quarantine.
While teachers who adhere strictly to traditional lectures might see student retention suffer, teachers who use a blend of conventional and digital instruction find themselves better equipped to ensure their students learn what they need to.
HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements are both blended learning resources that use eLearning lessons, videos, and other take-home activities to help teach students. By using them together, teachers guarantee their students have all the tools they need to keep up with the pace of the classroom--even if they can’t be there.
“It provides the ability for students who are quarantined to keep up from home and not come back three weeks behind.”
Health science instructor
Developer of the NCHSE Enhancements
Preparing Students for NHA Certifications
Certifications like the NHA CCMA are essential for students looking to enter healthcare as a career field. However, preparing your students for these exams can be difficult, and rely upon you teaching a combination of foundational concepts and specialized skills to ensure your students have a well-rounded knowledge base.
Both HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements were developed to teach these foundational healthcare topics, which makes using them together an excellent choice when it comes to prepping students for NHA exams.
“There were just little things that were different between NHA practice tests and HealthCenter21. Your staff was wonderful about taking that from all of us who had no experience and literally aligning them straight with NHA, which I feel is perfect. Perfect! [AES gives] the NHA certification kids the little chunks and self-assessment that NHA doesn’t provide.”
Health science instructor
Developer of the NCHSE Enhancements
For more information on which certifications HealthCenter21 can help your students prepare for, read this article: What Health Science Certifications Does AES Align With?
How Can I Use HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Enhancements to Prepare My Students for the National Health Science Assessment?
HealthCenter21 and the NCHSE Curriculum Enhancements are natural complements to teach other, mainly because they cover similar course material, but in different ways that allow both to fit better into separate roles within your classroom.
In this article, you’ve learned the various ways that these two resources can be combined in your classroom so that you can get the most out of each.
But if you’re interested in the NCHSE Enhancements, then you’ve probably also heard about the National Health Science Assessment, and are wondering how to prep your students for taking it.
The National Health Science Assessment is a great measure of how strongly your students grasp foundational health science topics, after all, and it’s an excellent starting point for your students before they decide what kind of health science career to pursue.
If you’re interested in learning more about how you can use HealthCenter21 to prep your students for the National Health Science Assessment, check out this certification guide!
In this guide, you'll discover which HealthCenter21 modules align with the exam, so that you ensure you’re covering all the bases to give your students an excellent start to their careers:
