ABE Contextualized Math Modules: Medical Assistant, Part 2—Using the Metric System at the Clinic

The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges in partnership with Washington Online supported the development of a series of contextualized math modules for Adult Basic Education (ABE). Written by instructors from across the state, each module consists of a PowerPoint file containing self-paced instructional content. The files can be shared with students for direct use.  Instructors can also use the PowerPoint file as a basis for lesson presentation. The series teaches mathematics concepts within the context of occupations spanning the Health Science, Transportation, and Architecture/Construction career clusters. The entire series of 12 modules is accessible at www.sbctc.ctc.edu/college/_e-abepd_teachingresources.aspx

**It is recommended that students complete Medical Assistant, Part 1 prior to this lesson. The Medical Assistant, Part 2 module provides scenario-based instruction to teach the mathematics concepts involved in calculating and converting metric liquid units, which is a task commonly performed by medical assistants. This Medical Assistant, Part 2 lesson focuses on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing liters and milliliters as part of math operations used in a doctor’s office, clinic, hospital or other healthcare facility. Each task presents a scenario-based problem and teaches the math skills essential to solving it. Practice problems are provided for both skill development and application to authentic situations with answers available to allow learners to check their work. An assessment covering concepts from both Part 1 and Part 2 is included at the conclusion of this module. Audio narration is provided for the workplace scenarios to support lower-level readers and ELL students.