Hi folks, My bug project seems to be up and functioning and I'm thinking of a new idea.
I'm developing a lab for teaching evolutionary biology using coyote skulls. I have a few from Massachusetts and Vermont (USA). I ordered some from Alaska, Washington State, & Montana; seeking more from Texas, Nevada, New Mexico, and Maine (Ebay - you can find anything). Two basic ideas: 1. compare skull size between the northeast population and the west. The northeast coyotes are actually wolf hybrids and tend to be larger. 2. test Bergmann's rule with the north- south gradient along the west coast of the US. There are certainly other ideas that could be addressed but have not occurred to me... The wiki part - for 101 reasons, not everyone can conveniently amass a collection of coyote skulls (nor should they have to). But I have a copy stand and a digital camera so my plan is to photograph the skulls with a calibration ruler in each shot and place the photos in a series of galleries on wiki pages (each skull gets a gallery of 6 photos covering each elevation). Measurements can be made from the photos using free software such as Irfanview (or OER products that folks may suggest). My thought is that students will be happier generating their own data than being handed a spreadsheet. Collaboration? It's complicated to attempt importing wildlife parts - but digital images of coyote skulls from Mexico and Canada would add value to the data set. Anyone interested in the idea? Any suggestions to improve it before I start photography? Cheers, Declan -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
