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Exploring Coyote Morphology: Introduction to Research and Study Design

Author(s): Christina D'Arcy1, Julie Marie Schlichte2, Vicky Zhuang

1. University of Texas at El Paso 2. The University of Texas at El Paso

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Summary:
This module is designed as a first foray for freshman-level (novice undergraduate) students into science literacy, research design, and use of museum resources in research activities. The module spans 5, 2-hour sessions and is geared toward flipped…

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This module is designed as a first foray for freshman-level (novice undergraduate) students into science literacy, research design, and use of museum resources in research activities. The module spans 5, 2-hour sessions and is geared toward flipped classroom pedagogies led by a graduate teaching assistant. The course module supports a class of 24 (6 groups of 4 students each working in teams) but can be easily adapted to fit larger or smaller class sizes.

Licensed under CC Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International according to these terms

Version 1.0 - published on 28 Feb 2024 doi:10.25334/9WSA-N951 - cite this

Adapted from: Is everything bigger in Texas? Introduction to Statistics with the Rock Pocket Mouse (Chaetodipus intermedius) v 1.0

Keywords

  1. statistics
  2. natural history museums
  3. distance learning
  4. science literacy
  5. Study Design
  6. intraspecific variation

Alignments

  1. Resource Type
  2. Audience Level
  3. Activity Length
  4. Inclusive Pedagogy for Life Science Education
Contents:
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Description

This resource includes the lesson plan guidance, suggested rubrics, assignments, and supplementary materials. It also includes the link to images with scales for 9 specimens of coyotes for distance learning adaptations.

Required materials for in person:

  • Coyote skulls from a curated collection (sample size greater than 5 per sex is preferred if available)
  • Calipers with metric units: 1 per team
  • Measuring tapes (soft) with metric units: 1 per team
  • Small ruler with metric units: 1 per team

Optional materials

  • Plastic casts of coyote skulls may be provided to students to practice handling and measurement skills
  • Plastic casts of other species in the genus Canis may be used to highlight morphological differences within the genus (examples:  Canis lupus, Canis familliaris)
  • Access to the internet to retrieve data from Arctos, review materials hosted on an LMP, or for in-class access to science literature databases
  • Markable surfaces (large post-it notes, whiteboards, chalkboards, butcher paper, markable walls) and dry-erase markers.

Materials Adaptations for the distance learning environment

Use of calibrated museum-quality images of coyote skulls from local or collaborating collections to measure + instructions on use of image analysis software such as ImageJ can be used in lieu of physical models. These images can also be printed out and measured with rulers.

This project was funded in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (CAGML-247505-OMLS-21)

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