These brief video segments can be used alone or in combination, to introduce a topic or to spark discussion among your students. The video segments can be adapted for any grade level. Stream the video segments from the players below, or scroll to the bottom of the page to find downloadable QuickTime versions of the videos. These videos are also used in the lesson plan Social Skills (Grades 9-12).
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.)
Social Networks and the Spark (Click on link to stream video– this clip is streaming only.)
