Coyotes in the Classroom: Free Educational Materials Available NOW

School is back in session and in full swing! Check our For Educators page to access our free curriculum kit which includes a workbook, answer key, and companion slides. This work was generously supported by Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District—thank you!

The materials in these free resources are based on content in our tutorial and are intended for use inside and outside the classroom. We hope this workbook will be useful for teachers, homeschoolers, parents, after school programs, summer camps, and more! 

In an evaluation, we found that classroom visits using our materials increased student knowledge about coyotes substantially and improved attitudes toward coyotes slightly.

Evaluation Details
We visited a local elementary school to pilot our classroom materials. We distributed questionnaires before and after two in-class visits using the workbooks and companion slides to three fifth-grade classes (n=62) to measure any changes in knowledge and feelings toward coyotes.
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• The classroom visits increased student knowledge about coyotes substantially.
  • A paired samples two-tailed t-test showed a significant increase in average scores from pre (M = 4.10 out of 7) to post (M = 5.61 out of 7), p = 1.03 × 10⁻⁹. The null hypothesis was rejected. Cohen's d was 1.20, indicating a large effect.
• The classroom visits improved attitudes toward coyotes slightly.
  • A paired samples two-tailed t-test showed a significant increase in average scores from pre (M = 3.49 out of 5) to post (M = 3.69 out of 7), p = 0.026. The null hypothesis was rejected. Cohen's d was 0.21, indicating a small effect

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Teachers found our materials informative and engaging but indicated that what they highly valued was the in-classroom visit from a researcher. Our capacity to visit classrooms is extremely limited, so future work bridging the gap between students and researchers is warranted.