Using segments from the PBS program: The Human Spark, students learn about the changes that occur in children as they grow. (Grades 9-12)

Peer into Alan Alda's head as we uncover where our most human abilities reside. Watch the full episode now.

Alan Alda finds out how human social networks compare to those of chimps and watches babies pick cooperative puppets over those that won't play.

Cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Spelke tests the representational thinking skills of children by asking them to relate a map to the real world.

Some chimp experts have concerns about how media portrayals could affect chimpanzee welfare in the United States and abroad.

Alan Alda explores how much humans and chimps have in common, and what sets us apart. Watch the full episode now.

What in the world are mirror neurons? And why might they be important for humans to possess?

Was the area that is now the coast of South Africa once an important site of innovation for early humans?

Take a look at the excavations at Scladina, a deep cave only recently discovered outside Liege, Belgium, where Neanderthals lived 100,000 years ago.

Alan Alda confronts the puzzle of why our ancestors got the Spark and evolved into us, while the first humans to leave Africa for Europe--the Neanderthals--never did.