Change Topics Unit Part 4: Human Evolution

This unit includes 6+ lessons (50 minutes each) and 12 pages of printable work bundle. The Work Bundle has students fill-in critical notes, conduct research activities, answer questions, interpret charts, includes games, built-in quizzes, assessment, and much more. The work bundles chronologically follow the detailed and interactive set of slideshows. A quiz game concludes each part for a great review and additional assessment. Answer Keys, video links, crosswords, built-in quizzes, and much more are provided. Everything you need to run a fantastic learning experience is provided. Everything arrives in editable format if you want add in your own slides and activities, and the slideshows and work bundles can easily be converted into Google Slides / docs for friendly Google Classroom learning.

Areas of Focus: Hominid, Hominin, Opposable thumb, Power Grip, Precision Grip, Bipedalism, Laetoli footprints, Theories on how does a drying landscape causes bipedalism, Timeline, Olduvai Gorge, List of Hominins with timeline and important information, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus anamensis, Australopithecus afarensis, Australopithecus boisei (Paranthropus), Australopithecus robustus, Homo habilis, Homo naledi, Homo erectus, Information about Homo erectus, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonensis, Homo sapien, Hominin Dentition, Mitochondrial DNA, Comparing Skulls of Hominins, Textbook Company Exposed, Recreating a better Textbook Activity, Brain Size, Hominin Family Tree, Creating the face of hominids, Box Game Review, Crossword Puzzle, Becoming Human WebQuest with Worksheet, APE Genius Worksheet, End Unit Assessment and Answers Version Version so Students Can Self Assess

Areas of Focus within this Unit (each Lesson roughly 50 Minutes)

Lesson #1 Introduction to Human Evolution (50 Minutes): This starts off showing a cartoon of the Flintstones and has the students guess what is incorrect. They learn that humans and dinosaurs did not coexist, and reference to dinosaur extinction event. The slideshow then leads into the end Mesozoic and rise of mammals, covers Ida the primate fossil (47 million years old), The slideshow then describes what a hominid is, as well as hominins, and provides some information about them. Opposable thumbs are described, and the slideshow discusses power and precision grips, Includes and activity where students try to untie their shoes without the use of their opposable thumbs, as well as the all popular "thumb war". Primate hands are shown and students need to guess which one is the humans hand. Bipedalism is addressed and reference to the Laetoli footprints (3.6 m.y.a) in Tanzania. The slideshow then describes changes in Africa, Connections between chimpanzee's and humans, Olduvai Gorge / Leakey's... Lucy are all addressed. , A video link reviews at the end.

Lesson #2 Hominins: A page in the work bundle has various hominins where the students will record information from the slideshow. The pictures in the slideshow correspond to the work bundle so the students won't get their hominins all crossed up. Hominins are described one at a time from the most distant to the most recent. A video about the discovery Homo naledi is provided, as is the Flores Hobbit, Homo floresiensis. , and video about brain size and general timeline is provided. Hominin dentition is provided and compared to modern humans and chimpanzees. Mitochondrial DNA is also addressed and reference to "Mitochondrial Eve" the EMH that left Africa between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. Some videos review the end of the lesson and answers provided to any student who may have missed a hominin on the work bundle.

Lesson #3 Family Tree: This lesson begins reviewing hominins and students are asked to identify hominins based on their skull. Next, a text page is shown and the students read it and are asked to respond to it. They don't really get it at first, but the text book does a horrible job describing human evolution. It doesn't actually provide any information and instead just repeats info and wastes space. After the slideshow shows how the text company is purposefully omitting important details, the students are asked to make a better textbook page. Brain size changes, Hominin facial reconstruction video, and hominin timeline videos wrap up this portion.

Lesson #4 Becoming Human .org: This is a fantastic website that has students explore all aspects of human evolution. The work bundle directs the students to various exhibits but still gives them some choice. The also get to compare skulls, and participate in some many neat ways. This will likely run several days as the students get really involved.

Lesson #4 Optional Extension APE Genius. A link is provided to the movie NOVA movie APE Genius. This is an extremely interesting movie that looks at the little differences between apes and humans that makes the big differences in how our species are extremely different (even though chromosomal differences aren't that large). The movie looks at chimps problem solving abilities. This move lasts about 55 minutes, and the work bundle has some questions the students need to answer so likely this is best run over two days.

Lesson #5 Review and Wrap-Up. A crossword puzzle with word bank is provided that helps review important vocabulary. The word bank can be removed to make the puzzle more challenging. A 20 question review game with bonus and final question is also provided. I usually let the students work in collaborative groups and use their work bundle. An answer version is provided so the students can self assess. The question is provided before the answer so the teacher can call upon students or groups. The work bundle also has an answer version that can be shown on the screen and students can self the work bundle.

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