Grade Level: 5-8

Time Allotment: Two 45-minute class periods

Overview: Using segments from the PBS program: The Human Spark, students learn how to design and critique experiments with living subjects.  In the Introductory Activity, students explore the steps involved in designing and conducting an experiment and view a video segment of an experiment with rhesus monkeys. Students discuss the steps involved in the experiment, the ways in which the researchers controlled for variables and how the experiment could be modified. In the Learning Activity, students explore several experiments conducted with human children and chimps and compare the methodology used in each. In the Culminating Activity, students design and conduct their own experiments, present their findings to the class, and share their reflections on the process.

Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to:

• Describe the steps involved in conducting an experiment.
• Critique other experiments.
• Discuss how researchers control for variation in an experiment.
• Explain the difference between controlled, dependent and independent variables.
• Design, conduct and discuss their own experiments.

STANDARDS:

New York State Standards:

Standard Area: Math, Science & Technology/Standard MST1: Analysis, Inquiry & Design

Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.

• Key Idea MST1.SI2: Scientific Inquiry: Beyond the use of reasoning and consensus, scientific inquiry involves the testing of proposed explanations involving the use of conventional techniques and procedures and usually requiring considerable ingenuity.

Intermediate:

• Performance Indicator MST1.I.SI2A: Students use conventional techniques and those of their own design to make further observations and refine their explanations, guided by a need for more information.

Major Understandings: 2.1a:Demonstrate appropriate safety techniques; 2.1b: Conduct an experiment designed by others; 2.1c: Design and conduct an experiment to test a hypothesis; 2.1d: Use appropriate tools and conventional techniques to solve problems about the natural world, including: measuring, observing, describing, classifying, sequencing

• Performance Indicator MST1.I.SI2B: Students develop, present, and defend formal research proposals for testing their own explanations of common phenomena, including ways of obtaining needed observations and ways of conducting simple controlled experiments.

Major Understandings: 2.2a Include appropriate safety procedures; 2.2b Design scientific investigations (e.g., observing, describing, and comparing; collecting samples; seeking more information, conducting a controlled experiment; discovering new objects or phenomena; making models); 2.2c: Design a simple controlled experiment; 2.2d: Identify independent variables (manipulated), dependent variables (responding), and constants in a simple controlled experiment; 2.2e: Choose appropriate sample size and number of trials.

• Performance Indicator MST1.I.SI2C: Students carry out their research proposals, recording observations and measurements (e.g., lab notes, audiotape, computer disk, videotape) to help assess the explanation.

Major Understandings: 2.3a Use appropriate safety procedures; 2.3b Conduct a scientific investigation; 2.3c Collect quantitative and qualitative data.

National Science Education Standards

Grades 5-8:
Content Standard A: Science as Inquiry
Fundamental concepts and principles that underlie this standard include:

• Abilities Necessary To Do Scientific Inquiry
  • Identify Questions That Can Be Answered Through Scientific Investigations. Students should develop the ability to refine and refocus broad and ill-defined questions. An important aspect of this ability consists of students’ ability to clarify questions and inquiries and direct them toward objects and phenomena that can be described, explained, or predicted by scientific investigations. Students should develop the ability to identify their questions with scientific ideas, concepts, and quantitative relationships that guide investigation.
  • Design And Conduct A Scientific Investigation. Students should develop general abilities, such as systematic observation, making accurate measurements, and identifying and controlling variables. They should also develop the ability to clarify their ideas that are influencing and guiding the inquiry, and to understand how those ideas compare with current scientific knowledge. Students can learn to formulate questions, design investigations, execute investigations, interpret data, use evidence to generate explanations, propose alternative explanations, and critique explanations and procedures.
  • Use Appropriate Tools And Techniques To Gather, Analyze, And Interpret Data. The use of tools and techniques, including mathematics, will be guided by the question asked and the investigations students design. The use of computers for the collection, summary, and display of evidence is part of this standard. Students should be able to access, gather, store, retrieve, and organize data, using hardware and software designed for these purposes.
  • Develop Descriptions, Explanations, Predictions, And Models Using Evidence. Students should base their explanation on what they observed, and as they develop cognitive skills, they should be able to differentiate explanation from description—providing causes for effects and establishing relationships based on evidence and logical argument. This standard requires a subject matter knowledge base so the students can effectively conduct investigations, because developing explanations establishes connections between the content of science and the contexts within which students develop new knowledge.
  • Think Critically And Logically To Make The Relationships Between Evidence And Explanations. Thinking critically about evidence includes deciding what evidence should be used and accounting for anomalous data. Specifically, students should be able to review data from a simple experiment, summarize the data, and form a logical argument about the cause-and-effect relationships in the experiment. Students should begin to state some explanations in terms of the relationship between two or more variables.
  • Recognize And Analyze Alternative Explanations And Predictions. Students should develop the ability to listen to and respect the explanations proposed by other students. They should remain open to and acknowledge different ideas and explanations, be able to accept the skepticism of others, and consider alternative explanations.
  • Communicate Scientific Procedures And Explanations. With practice, students should become competent at communicating experimental methods, following instructions, describing observations, summarizing the results of other groups, and telling other students about investigations and explanations.
  • Use Mathematics In All Aspects Of Scientific Inquiry. Mathematics is essential to asking and answering questions about the natural world. Mathematics can be used to ask questions; to gather, organize, and present data; and to structure convincing explanations.
• Understandings About Scientific Inquiry
  • Science advances through legitimate skepticism. Asking questions and querying other scientists’ explanations is part of scientific inquiry. Scientists evaluate the explanations proposed by other scientists by examining evidence, comparing evidence, identifying faulty reasoning, pointing out statements that go beyond the evidence, and suggesting alternative explanations for the same observations.
  • Scientific investigations sometimes result in new ideas and phenomena for study, generate new methods or procedures for an investigation, or develop new technologies to improve the collection of data. All of these results can lead to new investigations.

Media Resources

The Human Spark, selected segments

• Monkey See, Monkey Take

A look at an experiment where monkeys take food from humans when the humans are not looking.

• Humans vs. Chimps

A look at experiments which compare the abilities and reactions of human children and chimps.

Websites:

For use by students in this lesson:

• Neuroscience for Kids/ The Senses
  This section of the University of Washington’s website includes descriptions of different experiments involving the 5 senses, which students could use in the Culminating Activity.

• Science Experiments for Kids
  This website provides a variety of ideas for experiments. Students could conduct the “taste without smell” or “dominant side” experiments in the Culminating Activity.

Related Resources:

• Cool-Science-Projects.com

This website provides a variety of information about experiments which could be used in this lesson, including the following:

• Independent and Dependent Variables

This page defines the terms “dependent,” “independent” and “controlled” variables.
• Science Fair Experiment

This page outlines the experimental process in a clear and concise manner.

• Thinking Like a Monkey
  This article on Smithsonian.com provides more details about the research presented in the Introductory Activity, highlighting Professor Laurie Santos’ experiments with monkeys.

• Computers with internet access
• Computer, projection screen and speakers (for class viewing of online/downloaded video segments)
• 1 copy of the “Human vs. Chimps Discussion Guide”

Materials

For the class:

Before the Lesson

Prior to teaching this lesson, you will need to:

Print out one copy of the “Human vs. Chimps Discussion Guide.”

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 organize all the links in a central location.

Proceed to Lesson Activities.

Monkey See, Monkey Take
A look at an experiment where monkeys take food from humans when the humans are not looking.

Humans vs. Chimps
A look at experiments which compare the abilities and reactions of human children and chimps.

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.

Alan Alda talks to Robin Dunbar in this video clip about how early humans might have solved this problem, with interesting implications for language, laughter, and music.

How do you groom your relationships? What do you think of Robin’s theory?

Over the course of our travels, several experts suggested our ability to mentally time travel to past happenings and future possibilities as one candidate for a uniquely human talent. Now a chimp named Santino at a Swedish zoo seems to be forcing a more nuanced picture of what types of anticipation and planning our closest relatives are capable of.

Santino gets riled up when his enclosure is swamped with human onlookers. So he takes matters into his own hands and hurls stones out at the crowds. But what’s intriguing is that he stockpiles rocks in the morning when he is calm and no visitors are peering in at him. He appears to be anticipating their arrival later in the day and his likely-to-result agitated emotional state. So he serenely builds caches of weapons for use later on.

Of course, our human talents didn’t just jump into existence out of thin air. It’s to be expected that foundations for our abilities can be found in other animals. Santino offers an interesting case study… and a reminder that just because we haven’t spotted a particular ability in other species, or figured out an adequate experiment to address the question, doesn’t mean it’s not there in some form.

LINKS

• Summary of Current Biology article by researcher Mathias Osvath
• BBC Article with link to radio interview with Mathias Osvath
• LA Times: “Stone-throwing chimpanzee displays humanlike planning abilities“
• New York Times: “Zoo Chimp Plans for His Visitors, Stockpiling Rocks“

Bonobos have enjoyed a make-love-not-war image, thanks to their highly promiscuous sexual behavior and the fact that bonobo females have higher social status than males. Now it’s time to revise the reputation that they are the peaceful hippie cousins of the more violent chimpanzees.

In an article in the journal Current Biology researchers describe directly observing bonobos hunting not just small forest creatures but other primates as well. This discovery – or rather, this proof of what has been suspected for a while – could change the way scientists think about the evolution of male dominance and aggression.

Check out these articles for more info:

• Science Daily: Despite ‘Peacenik’ Reputation, Bonobos Hunt And Eat Other Primates, Too
• Wired Science Blog: Sex-Crazed Apes Feast on Killing, Too
• Reuters: Hippie apes make war as well as love, study finds