Prior
Knowledge :
Students
should be able to list attributes of living and nonliving material.
Students should be able to conceptualize and categorize.
Students should be able to write a summary report.
Students should be able to measure in metric.
Big Idea/Theme/Essential
Questions:
Evolution:
Change Over Time
How do anthropologists learn about evolution? How have humans evolved?
What environmental changes occurred to provide a stage for human evolution?
Lesson Objectives:
1.
Create a concept map and summary report about evolution of hominids.
2. Compare and contrast similarities and differences of primate and
hominid skulls
3. Students create an organism for the year 1,002,004 that has undergone
evolutionary changes.
4. Complete a data chart of hominid measurements.
5. Create a time line of hominid evolution.
6. Develop a map of Africa indicating results of global tectonic movement
and environmental changes.
Overview of Content:
If you
place apes and humans on an evolutionary time line, you would find
the genus Australopithecus closest to humans. They are the immediate
ancestors of humans because both australopithecines and humans are
biologically similar enough to be in the same family of Hominidae.
All people, including australopithecines are hominids. Not only do
humans share common ape ancestry in Africa with australopithecines,
but we also share the fact that we are bipedal, or two-footed, upright
walkers. In contrast, chimpanzees and gorillas are quadrupedal, or
four-footed.
In biological evolution, the potential of individuals to survive and
reproduce requires species change over time. The environment provides
the impetus for species to play out their evolutionary roles. Hominids
are defined by being bipedal. This mode of locomotion did not appear
suddenly, but more probably emerged in two phases. In phase one, they
came to the ground as knuckle-walkers, like chimpanzees and gorillas
today. In phase two, they moved into the savanna mosaic and became
habitually bipedal.
Raymond Dart, an Australian anatomy professor in Johannesburg, South
Africa, identified a fossil skull of a child as a human ancestor.
He became convinced that the fossil confirmed Africa as the place
of human origins as Darwin had argued fifty years earlier. In 1925
he named it Australopithecus africanus, although most paleoanthropologists
rejected his view that the fossil was an intermediate between apes
and humans. They thought it was just another ape. Eventually he was
vindicated when Mary and Louis Leakey uncovered fossils at Olduvai
Gorge, Africa, in the 1960’s.
Rarely do paleoanthropologists find complete fossils of hominids,
so one can imagine how ecstatic they are to find a skull in tact.
Like the pages of a book may be read to reveal the life of a person,
so may a skull be “read” to reveal the lifestyle of a hominid.
The following lessons will focus on “reading” skull replicas
to see how they are used to support the theory of evolution, and to
learn how global tectonic movements changed Africa to support the
evolution of hominids.
Length of Lesson:
Seven
90-Minute Periods
Opening Activity:
Constructing Prior Knowledge
1. Distribute
copies of the 11 x 14 K-W-L charts to the students. Allow them a few
minutes to write what they know about skulls.
2. Display the skull photos with chart paper at various stations around
the room. Instruct a group (4 students) to go to station 1 and make
observations about the photo at that station. They should write 1
observation agreed upon by the group on the chart paper and then move
on to the other stations in order. When they have completed the tour
of the stations they should return to their seats and add, delete
or modify what they have written on their charts. The students waiting
in their seats should look at the resource materials on their tables.
Guide students in generating questions and writing them in the second
column (Want To Learn).
2. Questions may be developed from the discussion about the photos,
from the resource material, or the news article.
3. When group 1 has moved on to station 2, another group should visit
station 1.
Each group should have about 3 minutes at each station.
4. Distribute copies of the article, “Skulls Found in Africa
and in Europe Challenge Theories of Human Origins” written by
John Noble Wilford, for the New York Times, August 7, 2002.http://www.nytimes.com/learning.
5. Assign a paragraph to each group to read and discuss among themselves.
They should select a spokesperson from the group to report to the
whole class.
6. When the article has been read and discussed, instruct students
to add information to their K-W-L charts. They may have more questions
or they may have found answers to questions they have already written.
The three columns of the chart should be complete at this time.
Homework Assignment:
1. Students are to read each of the statements they have written in
columns 1 and 3 of the K-W-L charts and label them with categories
that they brainstorm. Examples: structure, function, paleontologists,
location, geologic time period, theory, etc.
2. Students are given a Frayer Model vocabulary foursquare activity
sheet and a list of vocabulary words. (See attachment)
They are to enter each word in the center circle and complete the
instructions in each square for defining the word. Square One: Textbook
sentence with the
Vocabulary word underlined; Square Two: Student’s own definition;
Square 3: Dictionary/glossary definition; Square Four: Student generated
sentence encompassing the vocabulary word. (See
attachment)
Activity 2: Concept
Mapping Student Activity
1. Displaying the K-W-L chart on the projector screen, the instructor
will model how each of the statements is to be labeled with a category.
Remind students that no two charts are alike so they will need to
label their own statements with the categories they have written under
the heading “Categories We Expect to Use”, at the bottom
of their charts. Allow time for students to label their statements
if they have not already done so. They should use the first letter
of each category to label the statements.
2. Students are to create a concept map by placing the topic “skulls”
in a circle in the middle of a sheet of paper. The categories they
used to organize their statements will become the major concept headings
radiating from the center circle. Connecting lines show the relationship
of the main topic to the categories and explanatory details that are
written on circles connected to the lines.
3. Students will use the software program Inspirations to make a computer-generated
concept map and outline.
Performance Task Assessment:
Students will write
a summary report from the outline generated by the software program.
They will submit their K-W-L charts, concept maps and summaries for
assessment.
Rubric: See attachment for the concept map and summary rubrics.
Activity 3: Now That’s
Using Your Head!
From Sample AIMS
Investigations Brochure AIMS Education Foundation P.O. Box 8120 Fresno,
California 93747
Materials:
one tape measure
(per pair of students) 1 yardstick (per pair of students) worksheet
(per student) one calculator (per pair of students)
Introduction:
Very rarely are
complete fossil remains of human organisms found. Fortunately, skulls
of hominids have been discovered on many continents and have been
used to further the
evolution theory. One may think that very little can be determined
with so little to work
with, but thanks to anthropometry, anthropologists are able to learn
a great deal from a
skull.
This activity will
allow students to explore the relationship between their heights and
the
circumference of their heads.
Procedure:
1. Students make
predictions of how much greater their height is than the circumference
of their heads. They should record their prediction on their worksheet.
2. Next students will estimate his or her height and the circumference
of his or her head and record it on the worksheet.
3. Working in pairs, students measure each other for height and circumference
of their heads. They should record the information on their worksheets
and find the difference between their estimate and actual measurements.
4. The students will then compute how many times greater their heights
are by dividing their heights by the circumferences of their heads
and rounding the numbers to the nearest tenth.
5. Compute the group average ratio and record as a decimal.
6. The class height to circumference of the head can then be calculated
using a calculator and recorded.
7. To apply what they have learned, students are given the circumference
or the height of the instructor and ask students to predict the instructor’s
height or head
8. circumference. (See attachment for worksheet).
Discussion Questions:
1. Were you close
in your prediction of how many times greater your height was than
the circumference of your head? Why or why not?
2. Is there a close relationship between height and circumference
of the head?
What is that relationship? How can this relationship help anthropologists?
Extension:
Students can explore
“The Golden Proportion” that anatomists use to determine
the height of an individual using a formula based on the length of
the thigh bone. For males:
Height = length of femur x 1.88 + 813.06 millimeters. For females:
Height = length of femur x 1.945 + 728. 44 millimeters.
Activity 4: Cracking
The Cranial Codes
Introduction:
This
lab introduces students to anthropometric measurements as a means
of studying evolution. Students will observe, measure, compare and
contrast anatomical variations for each of the seven replica skulls
of hominids placed in stations around the room.
The measurement guide and the data recording sheet were adapted from
a lesson posted at www.carolina.com/anthropology/index.asp
Objective:
1. Students will
become familiar with anthropometric terms and techniques used by paleoanthropologists.
2. Students will identify the homologous structures.
3. Students will collect and analyze data by measuring homologous
features of skull replicas.
Materials:
seven skulls calipers
calculators data sheet rulers
Science journals
Procedure:
1. Place a skull,
a caliper, a ruler, a tape measure and a protractor at each station.
2. Give each student a data sheet and each group of four students
a skull measurement guide.
3. Instruct one group to go to the first station and begin measuring
the skull replica. Each student is to participate fully by undertaking
a specific task at the station. After 5 to 7 minutes, instruct the
group to move to station two as another group begins work at station
one. Students are to continue to rotate until they have visited each
station. Students should make sketches of the most pronounced features
of the skulls in their journals and record the measurement data on
the worksheet.
4. After all measurements have been taken, students are to return
to their seats to analyze and discuss the data within their group.
Have students look for patterns represented by their data:
a. List the features that all the skulls have in common
b. List the features that are most helpful for distinguishing among
the replicas.
5. Hold a whole group discussion about the data:
a. Why do you think the canine tooth reduced in size so much from
earlier to later hominids? (Grasping function of long canines replaced
by easy use of
Hands, associated with bipedalism.)
b. Why do you think the face flattens over time in hominids? (Similar
reason as for item one.)
c. How does the position of the foramen magnum relate to the body
posture and locomotor pattern of the animal? (More forward and under
the skull, associated with erect posture of bipedalism; skull balances
on top of spinal column. With semi-erect posture of apes, foramen
magnum is located more to the rear of the skull.)
d. Have we really lost the browridge? (Not really; forehead rises
directly above the browridge, enclosing the much-enlarged frontal
lobes.)
Extension:
Students are given
a blank timeline and small photos of the seven skull replicas. Using
research, students are to find the period on the timeline that each
of the skulls fit into.
They should cut the photos apart and glue them on the timeline in
the correct location.
Social Sciences Connection:
Our Ancestors
1. Using information entitled Our Ancestors from Prehistoric Ages
an Usborne book, students will complete a chart that requires time
period, weight, height, skull location, and accomplishment of early
ape to modern man.
2. Secondly, students will create an Ancestor Map using information
taken from
Famous Finds, in Prehistoric Ages. They are to label the continents
and oceans, draw a legend and place a marker where each of the ancestors
was found.
3. The last activity requires students to create an ancestor timeline
from the data
they have collected.
(See attachments for chart and
information pages)
Rubric:
|
 |
Grade: 7
Course: Life Sciences
California Content Standards
Science
Standards
3. Biological
evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through
processes over many generations. As a basis for understanding this
concept:
a. Students know both genetic variation and environmental factors
are causes of evolution and diversity of organisms.
b. Students know how independent lines of evidence from geology, fossils,
and comparative anatomy provide the bases for the theory of evolution.
History/Social
Science Standards
Chronological
and Spatial Thinking
2. Students construct various time lines of key events, people, and
Periods of the historical era they are studying.
.
.
.
|
