When students learn the skeletal system, they often spend a lot of time identifying bones and memorizing anatomical landmarks. Adding a lesson on bone fractures gives students an opportunity to apply what they know about bones to injuries they may encounter in real life.

The worksheet includes illustrations of several types of fractures. Students read a description of each injury and determine which illustration represents that type of break.

Rather than simply memorizing vocabulary, students must look for clues in both the description and the image. For example, a break running straight across the shaft suggests a transverse fracture, while a diagonal break indicates an oblique fracture. A bone broken into several pieces is characteristic of a comminuted fracture.

Students identify ten common fracture types:

• Closed (simple) – The bone is broken, but the skin remains intact.
• Open (compound) – The broken bone pierces the skin and creates an open wound.
• Transverse – The fracture runs straight across the bone.
• Oblique – The fracture crosses the bone at an angle.
• Spiral – A twisting force produces a fracture that spirals around the bone.
• Comminuted – The bone breaks into three or more pieces.
• Greenstick – The bone bends and cracks without completely breaking, a pattern more common in children.
• Impacted – One broken end of the bone is driven into the other.
• Compression – The bone is compressed or crushed, often affecting the vertebrae.
• Avulsion – A tendon or ligament pulls a small piece of bone away from its attachment.

How to Use Bone Fractures in Your Anatomy Classroom

This worksheet works well as a short activity within a larger skeletal anatomy unit. I use activities like this to break up lessons that involve a lot of anatomical terminology and labeling. Plus, fractures are something most students have experience with. I love when I ask students if they’ve broken a bone, then I ask “which one?” They’ll reply with my arm bone and I just give them a look – which arm bone?

Students can complete the matching individually and then compare answers with a partner. Another option is to project the fracture illustrations and have students justify their answers using evidence from the images.

For an extension, give students short injury scenarios and ask them to predict the type of fracture. A twisting injury during soccer, a fall onto an outstretched arm, or a vertebral injury associated with osteoporosis can encourage students to connect the fracture patterns to the forces that produce them.

The image below shows a spiral fracture in the humerus.

Related Resources

The Skeletal System Unit Guide – includes all of my resources for teaching the skeletal unit

Types of Joints in the Human Skeleton – explore the different types of joints, such as hinge and ball-and-socket

Coloring the Human Skeleton – students use their notes or other resources to identify bones and color a skeleton

X-Ray Set of Broken Bones – great for display and having students identify the bone and the fracture