Grade Levels: 9-12

Time Allotment: Two 45-minute class periods

Overview: In this lesson, students learn about the changes that occur in children as they grow. In the Introductory Activity, students brainstorm and use online resources to explore the stages of development children go through from birth to age five. In the Learning Activity, students explore video segments from the PBS program The Human Spark to learn about brain growth, language development and how children’s views of right and wrong can be shaped by others. In the Culminating Activity, students reflect upon their own process of development and how they acquired their skills and knowledge.

Subject Matter: Science; Psychology; Child Development

Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to:

• Describe important child development milestones from birth to age five.
• Discuss the developing human brain.
• Describe how the development of humans compares to that of animals and discuss the role of language in children’s development.
• Explain how authority figures can influence children’s perceptions of right and wrong.
• Discuss what has shaped their own skills and knowledge.

Standards:

National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula

Standard Area IIIA: Lifespan Development
Content Standards
After concluding this unit, students understand:

• CONTENT STANDARD IIIA-1: Development as a lifelong process
  Students are able to (performance standards):
  • IIIA-1.1 Describe physical, social, and cognitive changes from the prenatal period throughout the lifespan. Students may indicate this by (performance indicators): a. Illustrating developmental changes in physical, cognitive, and social development
    b.  Describing research on child development; c.  Hypothesizing on the interaction of physical, cognitive, and/or social changes in behavior; d. Inferring how peer relationships change over time; e.  Describing similarities and differences in development across cultures; f.  Discussing the relative importance of peers’ versus parents’ influence in different cultural groups; g.  Examining the role of psychology in enhancing the life of older adults.
  • o IIIA-1.3 Identify the complex cognitive structures found in the early development of infants and young children. Students may indicate this by (performance indicators): a.  Citing research on the capabilities of infants and young children; b.  Comparing contemporary research on early views of infant capabilities with current understanding; c.  Discussing the role of the caregiver in promoting child development; d.  Explaining how cultural practices in child-rearing may influence cognitive development.
  • IIIA-1.4 Apply lifespan principles to personal experience. Students may indicate this by (performance indicators): a. Comparing their own life experiences with general patterns of others from their generation; b.  Predicting their own developmental changes over time; c.  Describing transition from childhood to adolescence; d.  Explaining the transition from adolescence to adulthood; e.  Projecting themselves into late life adulthood (i.e., post 65)
• CONTENT STANDARD IIIA-4: Issues surrounding the developmental process (nature/nurture, continuity/discontinuity, stability/instability, critical periods)
  Students are able to (performance standards):
  • IIIA-4.1 Describe the role of critical periods in development. Students may indicate this by (performance indicators): a. Giving an example of a critical period in development; b. Evaluating significance of critical periods in development; c. Explaining difficulties of research in the area of critical periods; d. Linking cortical development to enriched environments during critical periods.
  • IIIA-4.2 Explain the issues of continuity/discontinuity and stability/instability in development. Students may indicate this by (performance indicators): a. Giving an example to illustrate continuity or discontinuity in development; b.  Citing research concerning stability or instability of traits over time;

New York State Standards:

Learning Standards for Health, Physical Education, and Family and Consumer Sciences

Students will know the basic principles of home and community safety. They can demonstrate the skills necessary to maintain their homes and workplaces in a safe and comfortable condition. They can provide a safe and nurturing environment for themselves and others.

• Students understand the stages of child development and apply this knowledge to activities designed to enrich the physical, social, mental, and emotional development of a young child. This is evident, for example, when students: plan a daily program of balanced activity for preschoolers based on knowledge and understanding of patterns of child growth and development; describe effective ways of promoting positive behavior in children; identify characteristics of a safe and nurturing home and work environment.

Media Resources

The Human Spark, selected segments

• The Developing Brain
  A look at how the human brain develops throughout a person’s life.

• Language Development
  An overview of how human language develops.

• Learning Right and Wrong
  A look at how a child’s views of what is right and wrong can be shaped by others.

Websites:

• Child Development and Parenting This section of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities Website provides information about child development, including the following:

• The Milestones Quiz This interactive quiz highlights developmental milestones.
• Developmental Milestones This section has fact sheets about developmental milestones from birth through age five.
• Milestones Chart This interactive chart provides details about developmental milestones through age five.

• Development Timeline This site features a child development timeline, which students can use in the Introductory Activity.

Materials

For the class:

• Computers with internet access
• Computer, projection screen and speakers (for class viewing of online/downloaded video segments)
• “Child Development Milestones” handout. Optional. (See “Before the Lesson” for details.)
• Printouts of the following “Important Milestones” fact sheets from the CDC website.
  (Note: Print out enough copies so that each group of 2-3 students has one of the seven fact sheets. If possible, when conducting this lesson’s Introductory Activity, divide the class into at least seven groups before assigning these fact sheets so that each of the fact sheets can be distributed to at least one group. For example, at least one group should receive the “end of 3 months” fact sheet, at least one should receive the “end of 7 months” fact sheet, etc. It is fine if more than one group gets the same fact sheet. Instead of making printouts, you can have students access the information directly on the Web.)

Important Milestones Fact Sheets from www.cdc.gov:

• Important Milestones by the End of 3 Months

www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/parents_pdfs/3MonthMilestonesFactShe.pdf

• Important Milestones by the end of 7 Months

www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/parents_pdfs/7Month.pdf

• Important Milestones by the end of 1 Year (12 Months)

www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/parents_pdfs/12MonthMilestonesFactSh.pdf

• Important Milestones by the End of 2 Years (24 Months)

www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/parents_pdfs/24MonthMilestonesFactSh.pdf

• Important Milestones by the End of 3 Years (36 months)

www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/parents_pdfs/3Year.pdf

• Important Milestones by the End of 4 Years (48 months)

www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/parents_pdfs/4Year.pdf

• Important Milestones by the End of 5 Years (60 months)

www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/pdf/parents_pdfs/5Year.pdf

Before the Lesson

Prior to teaching this lesson, you will need to:

Optional: Print out the “Child Development Milestones” handout and cut out each item along the dashed lines. Make enough copies so that each pair of students has at least one item on the sheet. (There are 33 items on the sheet.) This handout can be used in the Introductory Activity.

Print out the “Important Milestones” fact sheets from the CDC website. (See the Materials section for details.) Print out enough so that each group of 2-3 students has one fact sheet. Note: Instead of printing out the sheets, you can have students access this information on the Web.

Create a timeline in the classroom with the following points marked off:

Leave enough space between each of the points on the timeline, so that students can affix their “Child Development Milestones” strips of paper in the appropriate spots.

Preview all of the video segments and websites used in the lesson.

Download the video clips used in the lesson to your classroom computer(s) or prepare to watch them using your classroom’s Internet connection.

Bookmark all websites which you plan to use in the lesson on each computer in your classroom. Using a social bookmarking tool such as delicious or diigo (or an online bookmarking utility such as portaportal) will allow you to save the links in one location.

Proceed to Lesson Activities.

“So Human, So Chimp” premieres January 13 on PBS.

Researcher Brian Butterworth

One of the earliest things American children are taught is how to count items out loud: one, two, three… But how much do humans understand about numbers before they learn this vocabulary? An interesting study conducted by Brian Butterworth and colleagues at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London addressed this question with Australian Aboriginal children, whose society doesn’t use counting words beyond one, two, few and many.

Check out these articles for more info:

• TVNZ: Humans may have innate math skills
• redOrbit: Is the ability to count innate?

The Human Spark crew visited Helen Neville in her Brain Development Lab at the University of Oregon. Check out some behind-the-scenes photos from our day filming with her and colleagues — and research volunteers.

Remember those counting monkeys?

Earlier this summer, we posted about a study that revealed that monkeys could listen to a series of beeps and then equate it to a visual representation of the same number. One of the researchers behind the study, Kerry Jordan, explained that we have a primitive number system that “allows us to estimate quantities without using language” and that we share this ability with many animals. Humans also have another number system that is symbolic and must be learned.

An article in The New York Times this week discusses a batch of new research that seems to show that these two number systems are actually more connected than was previously thought.

In one study, a group of 14-year-olds were given a test to evaluate their approximating prowess. On a computer screen, they watched as slides covered with blue and yellow dots flashed across the screen. After each slide they were asked whether there were more blue dots or yellow dots.

The results were very interesting:

Comparing the acuity scores with other test results that Dr. Mazzocco had collected from the students over the past 10 years, the researchers found a robust correlation between dot-spotting prowess at age 14 and strong performance on a raft of standardized math tests from kindergarten onward. “We can’t draw causal arrows one way or another,” Dr. Feigenson said, “but your evolutionarily endowed sense of approximation is related to how good you are at formal math.”

While they note that it’s difficult to determine a causal relationship between symbolic math skills and those required for approximation, the findings certainly provide some food for thought. And if you want to test your own number instinct, you can try out a version of the dot-spotting test on The New York Times Web site.

Tanya Smith shows 3-D images of Neanderthal teeth photo © Larry Engel, 2008

Graham Chedd here. Last time, I was telling you about our visit to the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility – and about the trouble I got into there.

We’d come to the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility at the invitation of Tanya Smith, who works at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany (where there’s a lot of very cool Human Spark-type research going on, so we’ll be filming there later). Tanya is an expert on teeth, which as she points out are by far the most durable parts of our bodies – in fact they are practically fossilized as they grow. What’s more – and I found this astonishing when she first told me – teeth have daily growth lines hidden inside them, much like tree rings, which can reveal their owner’s early life history – and how quickly they grew up.

Here’s Tanya, alongside some 3-D images of Neanderthal teeth.

Peering inside teeth to see those growth rings needs very powerful X-ray beams – beams millions of times stronger than you get from your dentist. That’s where the synchrotron comes in. And because the X-rays are so potent they are also deadly, which is why there are all sorts of safety precautions. For instance, we were allowed inside the synchrotron while the beam was turned off for routine maintenance for an hour or so, and we were all given special little keys. The synchrotron can’t be turned on until all these keys are returned and in their little locks.

The Emergency Stop button photo © Larry Engel, 2008

There are also big buttons like this everywhere…

including in the room where the teeth were actually scanned. Now, before the beam is activated the room it has to be cleared of people, and to make sure the room is thoroughly checked, there are buttons in the corners that have to be pushed. I volunteered to push one of these buttons – and pushed this one.

Of course, it was the wrong one (pretty obvious now, but at the time… not so much). An eerie silence fell as the entire facility, except for the lights, shut down.

After a moment of shocked disbelief (“What did you do!?”), Paul Tafforeau, who is Tanya’s collaborator at the ESRF, recovered his composure and set about informing the authorities what had happened and getting everything back up and running again. He even forgave me (sort of) and no one came to haul me away.

Here’s Paul, with another set of Neanderthal teeth, these from a child.

Paul Tafforeau examines a set of Neanderthal teeth photo © Larry Engel, 2008

This fossil has a fascinating story, and one we’ll tell in the show, because it was the first Neanderthal fossil ever discovered, in 1829, long before Neanderthals were officially recognized and named, and long before Darwin suggested that humans had evolved.

We don’t yet know what Paul and Tanya found out from the scans. That’s going to take several months of careful growth ring counting and analysis. But we do know they were happy with the images they got, and that by the time we get to putting together our program, they’ll be able to tell us how quickly these Neanderthal children grew up.

Next we’re off to the University of Oregon in Eugene, where we’ll find out what parts of Alan’s brain provide him with a couple of uniquely human skills – his facility with language, and the ability to use a screwdriver….

I just hope there are no big red buttons.