Educator Resources
Paleoanthropology is one of the best ways teachers can exemplify the nature of science. Often though, teaching human evolution is a struggle, either due to philosophical reasons or a scarcity of resources. We have attempted to provide science educators with a resource for teaching human origins, but you may ask how to use all of this information. Below, we outline suggested activities:
Fossil fact sheets: Print (laminate) and distribute the fossil fact sheets available on this web site. Have each student discuss his or her fossil. Get others involved by asking questions like, "Does anyone have a fossil older than 2.5 million years?" or "Who else has a fossil with a sagittal crest?"
Build your own family tree: Encourage your students to construct their own family tree using the fossils on this web site. There is no answer key to this activity, so their hypotheses are valid as long as they use actual evidence. You may wish to expand this activity and purchase models of the skulls (Carolina Biological Supply Company, Skulls Unlimited, Bone Clones are all excellent sources for hominid skulls) or use full sized images from From Lucy to Language. Have your students measure the skulls (skull diameter, molar size, sagittal crest) and use their data to construct their family trees.
Research questions: Print (laminate) the fossil fact sheets and ask some of the following questions:
- Did more than one kind of hominid live at the same time?
- Can we tell whether a hominid is a male or a female?
- How do scientists know how old these individuals were when they died?
- Where did our genus evolve?
- When did hominids first leave Africa? Where did they go?
- Who were the neanderthals?
- When did hominids first start making stone tools?
Encourage your students to form groups in answering these questions and others that may be asked as you teach human evolution in the classroom. This activity is also an excellent opportunity to integrate science writing into the classroom.
Family Tree Overlays: Print out the three family trees (1.2 MB PDF) from this web site. You may want to copy these and hand them out to your students, make color transparencies, or make this a computer-based activity. Encourage your students to look carefully at where each scientist agrees or disagrees with other interpretations of the family tree. Using the fossil fact sheets, discuss why there is consensus or argument.
Wall of life: Print out one (or all three) of the family trees on transparency paper and project it onto a blank wall. Print out each of the fossil fact sheets (you may want to laminate these) and encourage your students to find their place in time and tape them to the wall diagram. Your students will be able to see trends over time and how scientists determine morphological relatedness between fossils.
New discoveries: How do new discoveries alter our view of human origins. As new discoveries are made, the family trees on this web site will change. Science is dynamic and new discoveries are incorporated into what is hypothesized about the world. Looking at before and after family trees provides a wonderful opportunity to discuss with students how science works. You may wish to also address new discoveries by reading newspaper accounts and primary journal accounts of the fossils. What is being reported? What is the source? What is the evidence?
Massachusetts State Frameworks Addressed by This Site
PK-2: (#4) Fossils
3-5: (#6) Adaptations
(#7) Migration
6-8: (#1) Classification
(#11) Evidence
(#12) Extinction
9-12: (#1) Evidence
(#2) Diversity
(#3) Classification
Other Resources on the Web
- Human origins program at the Smithsonian Institute.
- Well referenced site on hominid fossils.
- Mesa Community College site on hominid evolution.
- On-line discussion of many aspects of human evolution- Indiana University
- Institute of Human Origins- multimedia discussion of hominid fossils.
- On-line look at Atapuerca- a hominid site in Spain.
- Updated, information-rich site on hominid evolution
- Thorough discussion of evolution.
- The New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology.
- Excellent classroom activity addressing evolutionary processes. The Blind Watchmaker.
- Marc Hauser homepage at Harvard University- study of cotton-top tamarins.
- Living Links Center- understanding of human evolution through study of the great apes.
- Primate Information Network. Excellent source for researchers studying primatology.
- Central Washington University site- Chimpanzee webcam.