The following is an adaptation of a lab exe Some fun for the holidays. The following is an adaptation of a lab exercise I developed for my ornithology students first at Ohio Unversity and then at Heidelberg College. So fair warning, you may actually learn something. I assume here some familiarity with Pictionary the commercial game whereby one draws a subject and gamers guess your intentions. In ornithological pictionary, everyone is a player at once, and can involve both team and individual scoring. Three or more participants are required. In the classroom we'd use a chalkboard but a satisfactorily large drawing pad may suffice. Each player takes a turn as The ILLUSTRATOR. As Illustrator, you are required to draw USING a PHOTOGRAPHIC FIELD GUIDE a species of bird as near to the appearance in the guide as possible. How you choose the particular species is optional and I leave it to you but it works best if the selection is randomized. You have 90 secs to complete the rendering. I use a simple kitchen timer. From the start of the illustration, PLAYERS may offer an answer. But purely guessing is not the point, and and so to make your answers count, 3 strikes and your out of the running for that round. Keep in mind too that a close but wrong guess may clue in you competitors. PLAYERS have as an aid ANY ILLUSTRATED/DRAWN FIELD GUIDE ... but ONLY ONE per team ... so choose wisely. PLAYERS may be as individuals or in team. Once the bird illustration is rendered (90 secs are up), PLAYERS have additional 90 secs to name the species. SCORING: The ILLUSTRATOR scores only if their bird is identified correctly ... 20 points if before the rendering is complete, 10 points if before 3 minutes have elapsed, 0 if no correct answer is given in the allotted time. PLAYERS (Team or Individual) score for a correct ID. A correct ID within 90 secs wins 20 points, or within the 3 minutes 10 points. Only the first correct answer wins. Individual Play: Imagine 5 players. Pre-determine the number of rounds, I suggest 10 (two species per person) which makes for about a 60 minute game. A maximum score would be 200pts. Team Play: Imagine 5 players. Given that teams (I like to think of them as bird records committees :-) should be even, in this case 2 & 2, the 5th player can either ... 1) alternate between teams, sitting in for the player stepping up to illustrate ... or ... 2) act as sole Illustrator The game lends itself to other nuances. For example, in Team Play, you may allow more than one ILLUSTRATED guide ... one to a person but a different author from that of your team mate. Find the exercise too easy ... don't use color, allow only one guess per round, or restrict species selection to a specific group e.g. birds-of-prey, shorebirds, etc. Briefly, the function in lab was to test one's ability to render field marks within a limited time frame, while simultaneously teaching something of the nature of interpreting those field marks. Of course, I simply hope you may find this a fun ornithological exercise. cheers Vic Fazio Lawton, OK BTW, what I did not expect to discover was clear distinctions between guides and their usefulness, at least with beginners. The clear winner among teams that chose it was Peterson. Keep in mind this was the early 1990's and there are MANY more field guide options available today. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]