“In the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”- Genesis 3:5 King James Version
Introduction
This is a subject where the forest can easily get lost in all the trees of the technical debates about the different possible evolutionary lines and species. Consequently, I try to focus on the big picture climate and evolutionary changes, and only mention the most major species (e.g. Homo Erectus). Presumably later iterations of this lesson will get into more detail about the other species.
Throughout the lesson I refer to other hominids as “our ancestors” or “your great, great, great… grandparent or grand uncle” I’ve found that the idea the idea that our ancestors were different animals naturally peaks children’s interest.
Also, I refer to the other hominids as “other kinds of humans.” This is technically correct, and once again the connection to “other humans” peaks children’s interest more than just “other animals” does.I'll sometimes use dogs as a touchstone("just like there are different types of gods, there used to be different types of humans").
Lesson Plan
A long time ago our great great… grandparents and monkey’s great great… grandparents lived in trees in Africa. At some point, however, some of the trees started to die off and there were a lot of fields and bushes instead. Our ancestors moved into those forests with lots of fields and bushes, while another group stayed in the trees. The group that stayed in the trees became chimpanzees, and the group that left the trees eventually became us.
The group of monkeys that left the trees eventually started to walk on two legs, some scientists think that this is because the ones that walked on two legs were better able to survive in the fields because they were able to look over the tall grass, and maybe protect their bodies from sunburns.
These monkeys looked like monkeys, only they walked on two legs (show them a picture).
Eventually, because they walked on two legs, they could use their hands for gathering things and creating sharp rocks and other things to hunt. They could not have done this without walking on two legs because their hands would not have been free.
Once their hands were free, the smartest ones survived and had more children because they were able to figure out how to use their hands to make stone weapons and tools, so their brains started to get bigger.
At this point there were some humans that were able to make tools, but they still weren’t as smart as us, they couldn’t talk a lot to each other, and they still looked like monkeys walking on two feet.
Because the brains started to get bigger, women had to deliver babies earlier because their heads were getting too big to fit through their legs. Because babies were getting delivered earlier they had to spend more time with them. They couldn’t just have them and then leave them after a short time like some animals. They also had to he social and like families and groups, so that their groups and families could help raise their children. Because they had to protect their babies for a long time they formed groups. Usually women die after they’re too old to give birth, but in humans women keep living, and we think that it’s so that they can help with their grandchildren.
Eventually, some of these humans started to take care of their older people and weaker people. They also started to use fire to cook food so that they could hunt bigger animals and not get sick from their meat. Up to this point all of the humans were in Africa, but some started to leave and search for living areas elsewhere. One type of human that came out of this was Homo Erectus. Homo Erectus is the longest living type of human, they were on the earth 9 times as long as we’ve been. Homo Erectus went to South Asia (show them migration routes on a map). Some of them must have crossed oceans, so maybe they had early boats. Another human was Homo Heidelbergensis that was the first to live in really cold areas (Northern Europe). We think that they were the ancestors to Homo Neanderthals, which were a species of human that lived next to us in Europe. Also, some scientists think that Neanderthals and us had babies together, and that some of our ancestors were both Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthals. Homo Neanderthals may have had white skin and red and blond hair.
Eventually, since we were getting smarter and formed groups, some of our ancestors invented language and started talking. We don’t know if it was our own species or one of the earlier ones that first started talking. Eventually all of the different humans but us died off. The last two to die off were the Neanderthals in Europe, and a dwarf species of humans that lived in Indonesia that only died out about 10,000 years ago. Some scientists think that we killed them off.
Future Lesson Development
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has some lesson plans for Jr. High-level students. I’ll look into those when my children are older. Also, I’ve taken them to the exhibit before, but the Smithsonian’s Human Origins exhibit in Washington D.C. is incredible.
Reading for Parents
The Third Chimpanzee: By far the most readable, enjoyable work on human evolution out there.
Also, from a more spiritual perspective, Hugh Nibley’s “Before Adam” is a good discussion from a Mormon perspective (although sometimes he’s a little too skeptical about the science).
Web Resources
Human Evolution Interactive Timeline
http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-evolution-timeline-interactive
Video Resources
BBC’s excellent Walking With series has some good episodes that involve early hominids. Specifically, they have the four-part Walking with Cavemen series, as well as the latter half of the Walking with Beasts series.
Material Resources
The classic charts that show a linear progression from earlier forms to Homo Sapiens can be misleading as they imply a higher level of certainty about relationships than we have--and possibly will ever have. The particulars about who descended from who is fiercely debated in human anthropology, and most of the details about the “family tree” type charts are highly arguable. Posters that take the overlapping timeline approach may be useful.
No comments:
Post a Comment