How does a curriculum intervention that anchors instruction to the study of urban coyote behavior affect student learning?

One component of the science education reform process must be a sustained effort toward making the study of science more interesting and meaningful to students, especially in urban areas. Creating authentic learning opportunities where a scientist instructs the curriculum intervention is one way to make science lessons more relevant. This project involved assessing student cognitive gains on a locally relevant science topic: eastern coyotes (Canis latrans). This study used a mixed methodological (qualitative – quantitative) framework for students from two urban environmentallybased high school science courses in the Boston area. Both classroom interventions tended to show meaningful learning gains when assessed before and after the short (two to three week) curriculum unit. Furthermore, students retained much of this knowledge during a post-delayed survey ten weeks after the curriculum unit finished. Coyotes and other common wild animals could potentially be used as flagship or charismatic species to trigger increased interest and a knowledge base of the environment in which students live