Last October, I wrote a post about the totems that I draw on the chalkboards, to guide students through their gross anatomy practical exams. The first such exam for the freshman medical students this year is scheduled for next Tuesday, and I’m soliciting suggestions for new animals to incorporate into my chalk menagerie.
Ideally, I’d like to incorporate more prehistoric animals into my repertoire this year, and more birds, fish, and reptiles. Invertebrates aren’t out of the question either; my current list is very mammal-intensive, but mammals are in general quite popular with the students.
Keep in mind that my drawings are necessarily simplified, because I have to render them on greasy (don’t ask) chalkboards, using sidewalk chalk, in a limited period of time. Here is the list of non-mythological animals that I have drawn as totems to date:
- gray squirrel
- weasel
- sea otter
- porcupine
- beaver (with felled tree)
- armadillo
- free-tailed bat
- opossum
- polar bear
- grizzly bear
- spotted hyena
- giraffe
- leopard
- African elephant
- gelada baboon
- aardvark
- warthog
- common genet
- rhinoceros
- hippopotamus
- tarsier
- pangolin
- quagga
- giant anteater
- red kangaroo
- narwhal
- flounder
- seahorse
- hammerhead shark
- giant squid
- emperor penguin
- toucan
- gecko
- American alligator
- diamondback rattlesnake
- stegosaurus
- saber-toothed cat
One of the four rooms always has mythological animals, but I’m more interested in suggestions for the other three rooms. It would be great to have an entire room with prehistoric animals. Also, there will be several more practical exams throughout the next half-year, so I can incorporate many new suggestions.
Oh, you have to have a trilobite! And Hallucigenia next to a “This Way Up” sign. Not that anyone will understand the joke.
You could also draw a fiddler crab: it was intelligently designed for pointing.
I liked the opossums best! In a similar “hanging from branches” vein, would a sloth send the wrong message? You could counter it with an owl for wisdom.
I’m not good with prehistoric creatures, outside of the Jurassic Park movies anyway.
@ Bob: A trilobite would be excellent! Perhaps one or two students would know what a Hallucigenia is, though. Fiddler crabs would be fun … they can point and hold arrows in their claws.
@ Cath: The opossums are a favorite with students and with one of the faculty; I got the idea after seeing a photo a friend sent me, with a baby opossum she’d rescued, hanging from her finger. The mascot for my undergrad alma mater is an owl, and I share that alma mater with about 5-7% of the students each year. Might be accused of mascot bias, if I drew an owl.
You need a platypus!
Is this just an excuse for me to show off my vacation photos again?
Maaaaaybeeeee…..
Great idea!… I love your totem boards!!… I wish I had those when I was a student!
It would be great to have an entire room with prehistoric animals
Meaning dinosaurs?
Triceratops are nice…
mattmihm.org/triceratops.html
Saber tooth cats also…
www.joevenusartist.com/Utah%20Ice%20Age.htm
Let us know your selected animals for this time!
:-)
Leafy sea dragon and marmosets.
Also I second platypus and want to see more of Eva’s photos!
@ Eva: A platypus it is, then! I think I’ll have an Australia room this exam (platypus, kangaroo, cassowary, cockatoo?).
@ María José: The triceratops is excellent. One of my teaching colleagues will be so happy – he’s been requesting dinosaur drawings for awhile now.
@ Sabbi: I thought that leafy sea dragons were some sort of weird joke, invented by divers, until I saw one in an aquarium exhibit. One of the students last year requested seahorse drawings as a random joke, as he thought I’d never include them, but I did a drawing with three of them clinging to an arrow with their tails.
I was going to suggest “platypus” but Eva beat me to it.
Then I thought a bird with a long beak would be good at pointing the way… so a toucan. But you beat me to it. So how about a Marabou Stork, or a Great Blue Heron?
Or, on the wisdom and learning side, how about OH FOR GOODNESS SAKE CATH ALREADY SUGGESTED AN OWL.
Slow on the uptake, me.
An Apatosaurus, or other sauropod, could point the way with its long neck – or how about a swordfish, marlin or sailfish, all of which have long pointy bits? Or some kind of icthyosaur for your prehistoric room?
Rhinogrades!
Background info
Those Rhinogrades are excellent. You could also try some of the excellent creatures from The Future is Wild, although you might end up fielding lots of questions from the students about what the heck they are.
@ Richard: A billfish such as this Blue Marlin, perhaps?
The rhinogrades would be funny, but I would have to write some sort of explanation on the board next to the drawing. The students aren’t allowed to ask questions during the exam (unless there is something hideously amiss). I write the names of odd or obscure animals next to the drawings because of this. Usually there are one or two students who will copy my drawings on their exam papers, at a rest stop or at a tag station that they found easy … I always find this very entertaining.
Chalkboard platypus, show me the way!
Chalkboard trilobite, need exam help today!