Grade Levels: 9-12

Time Allotment: Two to three 45-minute class periods

Overview: In this lesson, students will use selected segments from the PBS series The Human Spark to investigate the differences and similarities between the respective social dynamics of humans and our closest primate relatives and what they may tell us about what—if anything—may make us uniquely human.

In the Introductory Activity, students are asked to brainstorm what the basic building blocks of human society are, and asked to consider whether any of these are indeed unique to humans, or if they may also be found in the animal world. In the Learning Activity, they will watch a series of excerpted clips from The Human Spark comparing and contrasting the social and individual behavioral tendencies of humans and primates along three main themes: altruism/helping/cooperation, laws/rules/power/politics, and learning/teaching. In the Culminating Activity, students will divide into groups to compare the observations they have made throughout the lesson on their student organizers and make brief presentations to the rest of the class.

This lesson is best used as an introduction to (or supplement to) a unit on anthropology or sociology.

Subject Matter: Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Evolutionary Biology

Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to:

• Outline the essential elements of human society
• Describe the basic dynamics of chimpanzee society
• Define a relationship in anthropological terms
• Provide experimental examples of an innate human tendency to cooperate
• Compare and contrast the learning and teaching behavior of humans and primates
• Explain why the extent of our ability to cooperate may constitute a “human spark” distinguishing us from animals

Learning Standards

(From the National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies available at www.socialstudies.org/standards/strands)

Chapter 2—The Themes of Social Studies

1. CULTURE

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity.

Human beings create, learn, share, and adapt to culture. The study of culture examines the socially transmitted beliefs, values, institutions, behaviors, traditions and way of life of a group of people; it also encompasses other cultural attributes and products, such as language, literature, music, arts and artifacts, and foods. Students come to understand that human cultures exhibit both similarities and differences, and they learn to see themselves both as individuals and as members of a particular culture that shares similarities with other cultural groups, but is also distinctive. In a multicultural, democratic society and globally connected world, students need to understand the multiple perspectives that derive from different cultural vantage points.

4. INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of individual development and identity.

Personal identity is shaped by an individual’s culture, by groups, by institutional influences, and by lived experiences shared with people inside and outside the individual’s own culture throughout her or his development. Given the nature of individual development in a social and cultural context, students need to be aware of the processes of learning, growth, and interaction at every level of their own school experiences. The examination of various forms of human behavior enhances an understanding of the relationships between social norms and emerging personal identities, the social processes that influence identity formation, and the ethical principles underlying individual action.

5. INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND INSTITUTIONS

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of interactions among individuals, groups, and institutions.

Institutions are the formal and informal political, economic, and social organizations that help us carry out, organize, and manage our daily affairs. Schools, religious institutions, families, government agencies, and the courts all play an integral role in our lives. They are organizational embodiments of the core social values of those who comprise them, and play a variety of important roles in socializing individuals and meeting their needs, as well as in the promotion of societal continuity, the mediation of conflict, and the consideration of public issues.

Media Components:

Video:

Selected segments of The Human Spark: So Human, So Chimp

Chimp Politics

Host Alan Alda and scientist Franz de Waal observe and compare two alpha-male chimpanzees’ different approaches to sharing at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta.

Social Networks and the Spark

Oxford University’s Alan Dunbar compares human social networks  to those of chimps;  at Yale University, host Alan Alda observes how babies as young as three months old favor cooperative puppets over those that won’t play.

How We Learn

Host Alan Alda observes experiments at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology which demonstrate how differently human children and orangutans learn how to complete tasks.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

At the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta. Vicki Horner explains the ways chimps “passively tolerate” learning as opposed the “active” engagement of human teaching.

Cooperation Over Competition

Scientists discuss what may be the uniquely “human spark” which separates us from animals: our ability to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate with others.

Materials:

For the teacher:

1 projected computer with internet access

Social Skills Student Organizer Answer Key (PDF) (RTF)

For each of three groups of students:

1 computer with internet access

For each student:

Social Skills  Student Organizer (PDF) (RTF)

Prep for Teachers:

Prior to teaching this lesson, you will need to:

Preview all of the video segments used in the lesson.

Download the video segments used in the lesson to your classroom computer, or prepare to watch them using your classroom’s internet connection.

Print/copy the Social Skills Student Organizer for each student.

Proceed to Lesson Activities.

Chimp Politics

Host Alan Alda and scientist Franz de Waal observe and compare two alpha-male chimpanzees’ different approaches to sharing at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta

Social Networks and the Spark (Click on link to stream video– this clip is streaming only.)

Oxford University’s Alan Dunbar compares human social networks  to those of chimps;  at Yale University, host Alan Alda observes how babies as young as three months old favor cooperative puppets over those that won’t play

How We Learn

Host Alan Alda observes experiments at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology which demonstrate how differently human children orangutans learn how to complete tasks.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

At the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta. Vicki Horner explains the ways chimps “passively tolerate” learning as opposed the “active” engagement of human teaching.

Cooperation Over Competition

Scientists discuss what may be the uniquely “human spark” which separates us from animals: our ability to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate with others.

Downloadable QuickTime versions of the video segments:
(Note: To download a video, right click on the video title and click “Save Link As…’ or “Save Target As…”. On a Mac, press the CTRL key and simultaneously click the mouse, then save the link.)

Chimp Politics

Social Networks and the Spark (Click on link to stream video– this clip is streaming only.)

How We Learn

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Cooperation Over Competition

Darwinium masillae

Our series attempts to locate when and where we transitioned into truly modern human beings — the elusive spark, if you will, that allowed us, here on our own tiny branch on the tree of life, to behave the way we do with all our various abilities and features. Part of this quest involves closely examining our direct ancient lineage, as well as our near and not-so-near cousins. Of course evolutionary history is filled with groups that split into various descendant lines as well as those that hit dead ends and fizzled out. These ancient family trees are pieced together through the fossil record. Looking at the various branches on these trees is one way scientists try to figure out the relationships between various animal ancestors and us.

Recent publications about a fossil called Ida provide the latest example of a creature that seems to have lived at one of those branching points where one group of animals was evolving into a recognizably different one. People in the media have jumped all over this beautifully preserved 47-million-year-old fossil, with some even calling it a “missing link.” Of course, there’s never a single missing link in the huge web of animal evolution, but it does appear that Ida, or Darwinium masillae, was a mammal who shared characteristics with the prosimians (such as lemurs) and also with anthropoids (such as monkeys and apes). Keep in mind, there’s a long, long time — and lots of evolution! — between when Ida lived and when our own species appeared on earth maybe 200,000 years ago.

What do you think of all the media hoopla about Ida and what she means?

• Research article: “Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology“
• Associated Press: “Early Skeleton Sheds Light on Primate Evolution“
• CNN: “Scientists Piece Together Human Ancestry“
• The Independent (UK): “The Big Question: Is ‘Ida’ really the missing link between humans and animals?“

Different animals look at the world with different eyes, literally. The colors a species can perceive is dictated by the types and number of visual pigments found in the retina. Humans and most primates are trichromats, meaning we have three pigment varieties that absorb light in our eyes and then transmit that information to the brain. Some birds and reptiles have four pigments, allowing them to perceive ultraviolet wavelengths that we can’t. And other mammals have just two pigments.

This article from Scientific American examines how our color vision system may have evolved. And through their experiments, authors Gerald Jacobs and Jeremy Nathans discovered some intriguing brain adaptability when new sensory inputs are added.

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“

Alan describes where we’ve been looking for The Human Spark to some members of the North Carolina press. Photo: Maggie Villiger

Asheboro, NC

A small horde of North Carolina TV and print journalists converged on the North Carolina Zoo early this morning to see Alan meet the chimpanzees there – and hear from him about our project. We were there to meet not only the chimps, but also the newly appointed Assistant Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University, Brian Hare.

Brian is only 32, but has already had a stellar career as a researcher into the social skills of chimpanzees and their close relatives, bonobos. Alan, having entertained the journalists, was making friends through the thick plate glass with Hondo, the alpha male of the NCZoo chimp group when Brian arrived. When the two men sat down to chat, Hondo, who had been calmly munching breakfast, suddenly hurled his whole body at the glass where Alan was sitting.

Hondo in a more contemplative mood than when hurling himself at Alan through the glass. Photo: NC Zoo by Tom Gillespie

Brian: That’s just, “Hello and welcome to the neighborhood.”

Alan: To my neighborhood, right?

Brian: Exactly, to his neighborhood. That’s exactly it. He just knows who’s the alpha male out here and he wants to make a potential coalition partner of you, Alan.

Hondo’s display unfortunately left a large smear on the glass that we had to live with for the rest of the interview. But his outburst allowed Brian to make an important point about one of the differences between chimps and humans that we’ve set out to explore: chimps have a much harder time controlling their emotions.

Brian: He can’t inhibit. “You guys are new… I’m really excited… I need to display.” And so he makes a plan over the next 60 seconds but it’s not the next 60 days, as we might. But Hondo is a very nice guy, he has a long history with humans and the truth is he just wants some attention.

One of the major themes we’ll be tackling is how much chimps (and other non-human primates) see others as having minds like their own. This has been a hugely controversial subject over the last few years, and Brian has been in the thick of the debate. Alan and Brian got into it right away:

Click the image to view larger. Brian and Alan discussing chimpanzee minds – while chimps keep an eye on what’s happening on the human side of the glass. Photo: Maggie Villiger

Alan: It’s so interesting to look into their eyes, because there seems to be a look of some comprehension. I mean, I get a look back from him. He’s observing me. It looks like thought is going on.

Brian: That’s one of the things our research has been all about, trying not only to figure out, do they think, but are they thinking about you thinking? And when they look into your eyes, is it like you looking into somebody else’s eyes, where you are trying to size up somebody and say, “Oh, what does he know? Is this a friend? Is this somebody who is a foe?” That’s part of the excitement, trying to figure out exactly what is going on in their heads.

In the coming weeks we’ll be trying to figure out what’s going on in the heads of chimps and monkeys at research facilities here the United States, as well as the Caribbean, Europe and Africa. And along the way we’ll be taking a look into the heads not only of our fellow primates but also of our own species – as well as a species that’s much more distantly related – dogs – who are apparently better able to understand certain human social cues than our primate cousins. Brian Hare was actually the first to suggest this, way back when he was an undergraduate.

Hondo, meanwhile, kept up his attempts to be a part of the conversation, and will no doubt eventually succeed in getting his opinions expressed on your television screen…

– Graham Chedd

Learn a bit more about Brian Hare’s research with chimpanzees, bonobos, dogs and foxes from these articles:

• Smithsonian Magazine: Dogged
• Duke Research: Going to the Source