Back to Teachers Home

In Search of Human Origins, Part I

Viewing Ideas

Before Watching

1. As a preliminary homework assignment, ask students to collect pictures of a variety of animals and bring them to class. Assign teams of three or four students to organize their pictures into logical groupings. Add to their collection a couple of pictures of primates and a human, and ask the students to describe the relationships between the different groupings they have created. In what ways do humans differ from other animals? From apes? What are some ideas that students have for the methods that scientists use to organize animals into "families?"

After Watching

1. How did the knees, pelvis, and skull help anthropologists make deductions about our early ancestors? Ask students to recall some of the conclusions that were made about Lucy (e.g., she walked upright, she shared the work of food gathering, etc.). Write each conclusion on the board. Under each, list the evidence that was given to support it. Which conclusions seem to be the most plausible? Why?

2. Write the following words on the board: fear, anxiety, affection, desire. Ask students to record underneath each word objects or situations that elicit those feelings. Why do they think that people respond in such a manner? What role might those responses play in human development? Can they think of times when their instinctive response to a situation may have been more beneficial to them than their intellectual response?

3. The program shows how australopithecines may have shared both their food and the work of food gathering. How is food collection and distribution done in your family? In our society? Globally? Think of food sharing/collection differences among families in your area. What are different ways in which people respond to food shortages? To food surpluses?