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.

Brian Hare and Alan Alda converse outside the chimpanzee enclosure at the North Carolina Zoo. Credit: Maggie Villiger

By Maggie Villiger

Part of my job as Associate Producer for The Human Spark is getting each person who appears on camera to sign our release form, which gives us permission to use what we film with them. To be honest, it’s usually the easiest part of my job! But when we filmed with Duke University’s Brian Hare at the North Carolina Zoo, he resisted.

Brian wanted to wait to grant his permission to air the footage we shot with him until we could guarantee that we’d used no “Hollywood” chimpanzees in our show. He’d recently had a bad experience with another film crew that did include Hollywood chimps in their program about human cognition, and he was adamant that he wouldn’t sign until he could know for sure that The Human Spark had not done the same.

So our crew left North Carolina with footage of a fantastic exchange between Brian Hare and Alan Alda – but with the release form unsigned. At the time, it just seemed like a speed bump, not a brick wall. The Human Spark had no intention of turning to stunt trainers to get footage – our interest is in the behavioral studies that respected scientists do with chimps, not tricks they can be trained to perform. We continued on our travels around the world, filming as we went.

A still from the opening scene of So Human, So Chimp with Alan and Noah the young chimp and Russell the little boy.

One of our most important scenes was the open of the second program, So Human, So Chimp.  Each Human Spark episode begins with Alan Alda setting up the hour’s theme by speaking directly to camera. In this case, the theme is that chimps and human beings share a lot of characteristics, but are also 6 million years of evolution apart. After hearing about a docile, home-raised chimp from another one of our experts, Series Producer Graham Chedd had an idea; he decided the most effective way to get this theme across was to have Alan introduce it while sitting with a young chimp and a young child. Filming with Noah, this young pet chimp who was well-accustomed to being around people, seemed like the safest and most responsible way to create this kind of compelling scene.

Cut forward several months. We needed to get that appearance release signed by Brian once and for all in order to broadcast the footage of him. But through email exchanges, it quickly became apparent we hadn’t fully understood Brian’s objections. He was OK with the material we had shot at zoos, sanctuaries and research centers because they are regulated by tough animal welfare standards. But featuring ANY privately owned chimp in the program would be enough for him to refuse to participate. And so we came to an impasse.

Infant chimpanzees are shot off their mothers' backs in their African habitat and sold internationally – a trade that is threatening chimpanzees with extinction.

Brian patiently explained his ethical objections to us. He believes that filming pet or entertainer chimps helps contribute to the illegal international trade in infant chimpanzees – a trade that is helping push this endangered species closer to extinction.  Brian worried viewers would get the mistaken impression that chimps make good pets; in fact, once they mature into strong and unmanageable adult chimps, virtually all of these animals are given up by their owners. Brian says some are even killed. There’s simply not enough space or resources to rehabilitate the hundreds of pet chimpanzees that are kept across the United States. Brian is troubled by the overall effect on the chimp species in the wild as well as by the suffering endured by individual privately owned chimps. Others agree, and in fact, major scientific, welfare and health organizations have policies against using privately owned primates in films.

Brian’s arguments were thoughtful and reasonable to The Human Spark team though he did concede that there is little scientific evidence that links TV portrayals of animals to the illegal pet trade. His group is currently conducting research into just this question so in future the debate can be informed by empirical evidence in addition to compassion for our primate relatives.

American conservation groups can appear hypocritical when they tell Africans not to keep apes as pets but U.S. citizens are allowed by law. Credit: Vanessa Woods

On the other hand, Graham pointed out how important the opening scene was to the film. Alan’s narration clearly included the facts that the differences between the child and the chimp would increase as they each grow up, and that the native habitats of chimps and their continued survival in the wild is in jeopardy. Graham also explained that the shot that follows this introduction is of Hondo, a full-grown alpha male at the North Carolina Zoo, lunging at his glass enclosure and scaring Alan. Graham felt the contrast between the cute baby chimp reaching up to Alan and the aggressive adult chimp trying to hit him, would powerfully transmit the idea that keeping chimps as pets is a very bad idea. He also added a line of narration that explains how Hondo was captured illegally in Africa as an infant, and shipped to the United States as a pet before he was rescued and eventually brought to the zoo.

We needed to come up with a compromise. Since all of us involved in this debate are in possession of our own human sparks, we called upon our sociability and ability to work together to move toward a solution. First, Graham made sure that Alan’s narration clearly explains the threats to chimpanzee survival posed by the bushmeat business and the illegal international trade in baby chimps. Graham also took out a portion of the opening scene where the baby chimp climbed up unbidden to hug Alan – it was undeniably cute, but in light of the points Brian had raised, Graham agreed that it might give the wrong impression.

Adult chimps can be aggressive and their strength makes them dangerous. Credit: Vanessa Woods

Then The Human Spark production team arranged for Brian to take part in an ethics panel at a major nature film festival. Panelists discussed the use and abuse of animals in documentary films, and Brian was able to educate a vast group of filmmakers about the dangers of filming with privately-owned chimps. He even had a pamphlet [.RTF] ready for festival participants. So, as a result of our experience on The Human Spark, filmmakers are now better informed about the controversy surrounding the use of Hollywood chimps, and more aware of the possibility of unintended consequences.

Finally, we all eagerly agreed to post an explanation of this issue on the Human Spark website. By exploring the controversy and explaining our case study, we hope to get our viewers thinking about the issues as well, something that wouldn’t have happened if we had simply cut the problematic scene and moved on.

Read an article Brian Hare wrote for The Human Spark about why chimpanzees are not pets.

Why would mirror neurons be especially important for human beings to possess?

In this video Marean explains how that unique landscape and its natural resources would have been important to early humans – and allowed new cultural innovations.

What do you think of Marean’s hypothesis that South Africa was an important refugium in tough climatic times?

You can see also some behind-the-scenes footage and photos from our campfire shoot.

What do you think of Dominique’s answer to our favorite question: what is the human spark?