Mikaela Stiver, PhD
@mikaelastiver.bsky.social
470 followers 420 following 87 posts
Anatomist 💀 | Assistant Professor of Teaching at UBC 🤓 | Puppy Lover 🐶 | Gamified Learning Geek 🎲 | Overthinker 🧠 | Anatomy Doodler 🎨 | Views are mine (she/her)
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mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Where are all my #anatomy & #physiology education people at?!

I created an “Anatomy & Physiology Educators” starter pack: go.bsky.app/CEaup1

Comment below to be added & share widely!! 🫀🧠🔬
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
I come on Bluesky these days less frequently that most first-year university students wash their bed sheets, but I’m popping on today to assure everyone that my dog is still adorable AND she recently made a tiny friend 🐶🌲❤️
Two dogs atop a tree stump in the forest looking toward the right side of the image. The dog (a Yorkshire terrier) on the left is standing and the dog on the right (a very small cavapoo) is lying down.
Reposted by Mikaela Stiver, PhD
zachlondon.bsky.social
Time to get excited. Like toddler at Disney World excited.

CIRCLE OF WILLIS, a board game about vascular anatomy, is here!

@befast.bsky.social and I set out to make a #MEdEd game that is more fun than Epcot. Life goal unlocked.

Tell your friends and parents!
www.neurdgames.com/circle-of-willis
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Obligatory first day of work selfie from Wednesday afternoon! 📸✌🏼

It has been a whirlwind of a short week in my new position at UBC and my emotions are an overwhelming mix of excitement + ‘fish out of water’ / imposter syndrome, but I’m going to just keep swimming until it feels like home! 🐟💙
Selfie of a girl with long, light brown hair smiling and wearing a paisley print dress with a white cardigan
Reposted by Mikaela Stiver, PhD
zachlondon.bsky.social
Excited to announce that our visual fields game, "Field Cut," is a finalist for an educational game award called the Gee!

Being a finalist also makes it eligible for their People's Choice Award. Please vote for Field Cut here! www.geeawards.com

More on Field Cut:
www.neurdgames.com/field-cut
Reposted by Mikaela Stiver, PhD
pharmageddon.bsky.social
📢 Update: the Kickstarter for Epipocalypse: Bug Detectives is coming SEPTEMBER 2025. Learn ID epi with a card game!

Click to be notified when it launches. Early backers will receive a free Emerging Infections bonus card pack. #IDSky #MedSky #EpiSky

www.kickstarter.com/projects/pha...
Coming soon: Epipocalypse: Bug Detectives, A Medical Card Game
Learn infectious disease epidemiology through a simple card game. Geography, vectors, reservoirs, and more!
www.kickstarter.com
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Definitely worth considering!
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Last day of work at McGill University was an absolute rollercoaster of emotions 💙

Excited to be starting my next chapter as an Assistant Professor of Teaching at UBC (@ubccps.bsky.social) on July 1st … but first, I have a lot of packing to finish and an overflowing email inbox to attend to 😂🎉
Selfie of a women with brown hair in a pony tail and wearing navy blue scrubs
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
🤣 nah once I’m in Vancouver I’ll drive down the West Coast. Just avoiding the rest of the proverbial meth lab in the basement where possible, as I call it in the most endearing way 😉
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
I’m staying north of the 49th parallel as much as possible these days, so glad to see it’s online 😜 looks amazing!!!
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Ciao from my little home away from home in Italia! 💚🤍❤️

Looking forward to finally meeting the first year Harvey Med students in person in ~1 week… ma prima, le vacanze!! ✌🏼
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Fresh off the presses!!!
🗞️🧩♟️🎲🎉

doi.org/10.1002/ase....

Part of a Special Issue on Anatomical Engagement & Science Communication… with lots of other great articles that you should also check out! #AnatEd #MedEd #GBL #GamifiedLearning
Gamifying anatomy outreach: An underexplored opportunity
This article explores the underutilized potential of incorporating gamified approaches into anatomy outreach initiatives. While gamification and game-based learning approaches have been widely adopte...
doi.org
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Teeny tiny London wishes everyone on Bluesky a Happy Monday!! ✌🏼🎉🐶
Teeny tiny beige cavapoo lying on a wooden deck looking off in the distance with a pile of snow and metal plant trellis in the background
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Just like that, I have wrapped up the final course I get to coordinate at McGill University! 💔😭

Anatomy for Surgeons (a.k.a., Anatomy for Med-4s Who Love Anatomy) is my FAVOURITE course & it's bittersweet to say goodbye... so obviously I seized one final chance to make silly student certificates 🫀✌🏼
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Got a paper accepted on my (sort of) birthday!!! 🎉🤓🙏🏼

Non-leap years are a bit anticlimactic because my birthday gets a bit forgotten, but I appreciate the universe giving me a little win just the same! Cheers to my co-authors, getting older one quarter birthday at a time, and happy coincidences 🥂
a pug dog is looking at a birthday cake with a lit candle
Alt: a pug dog is looking at a birthday cake with a lit candle
media.tenor.com
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Here are just a few of my favourites 💜
1) Retina
2) Uterine tube
3) Pancreas
4) Seminiferous tubule

Please download, colour, and share 🙏🏼
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
It is with IMMENSE pride (& a touch of relief... WOW, drawing histology is more challenging than I imagined) that I share all 105 illustrations I contributed to the first ever Histology Colouring Book, created by Drs. Franz-Odendaal & Pinder 🤩🔬🖍️

histologycoloringbook.com
#Histology #AnatEd #MedEd
Histology Coloring Book
histologycoloringbook.com
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Delighted to see them being put to good use!! It's certainly no fancy AI anatomy art... *note to self for next time: more cats?* 😆
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
My brilliant med students taught me that in French the pudendal nerve used to be called “nerf honteux”, meaning “shameful/disgraceful nerve” — presumably related to the better known fact that “pudendal” itself is derived from the latin verb pudere = “to be ashamed”!

#ValentinesDay anatomy facts ❤️
a woman is smiling with the words i learned a thing behind her
ALT: a woman is smiling with the words i learned a thing behind her
media.tenor.com
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Oh, I do too! Every "easy" plant I've ever had has been dead within a few weeks and I really do try my best. I'm sticking with lego plants and crochet plants from now on!
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
And absolutely adorable highland cows at that... or should I say coos? 😁 Maybe that will be my next crochet project if I can find a nice pattern!
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
I have not, but I certainly will! Thank you for sharing ☺️
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Every time I open the news I want to start sobbing and/or punching pillows, so instead I’m crocheting Woobles cacti and succulent kits, & I hope they will cheer everyone else up a bit too 🌵🪴💚
Three crocheted cacti and a crocheted succulent sitting on a black box in front of an exposed brick wall
mikaelastiver.bsky.social
Apropos of nothing 🙄 “large reproductive cell[s]” are called ova, “small reproductive cell[s]” are called sperm (spermatozoa, if you’re fancy), zygotes do not produce either gamete “at conception”, and some people never produce gametes at all…

…and that’s just the TIP of the iceberg! 🫠
a man with a mustache and a suit says " it 's science "
Alt: GIF of a man with a mustache and a suit (Ron Burgundy) saying "it's science”
media.tenor.com