A Simple Paper and Thread Model to Teach Cranial Nerve Anatomy in Veterinary Education

Abstract

Learning the origin and attachment of the animal’s cranial nerve directly from the live sample is very complex for a student without prior knowledge. Thus, the study was planned to create a simple model to provide the basic idea on the origin and attachment of the animal’s 12 pairs of cranial nerves. A paper template was designed with graphic software to express the different parts of the brain and the brain stem. The origin and attachment of the 12 pairs of cranial nerves were also identified in the paper template.  It was cut and assembled according to the instructions to make the different parts of the brain and the brain stem. Now, various colored threads were used to represent 12 cranial nerve pairs that arise or attach to different parts of the brain and brain stem. The students used this model during the scheduled classes of the first-year veterinary medicine course facilitated by anatomy tutors. Students provided positive feedback on this crafty approach (simple model) and recommended it as a better learning method on cranial nerves before exposing a live sample. All the students can easily visualize and understand the relationship, origin, and attachment of the 12 pairs of cranial nerves from this simple model. Anyone from veterinary sciences can use this simple model to make learning easy about the animal’s cranial nerves.