In this lesson, selected segments from the PBS series The Human Spark are used to help students understand both the construction and context of some of the prehistoric tools which allowed early humans to survive and thrive. (Grades 9-12)

A media-enhanced lesson plan using selected segments from the THE HUMAN SPARK to teach how archeologists discover and examine artifacts and use them to formulate theories explaining how humans were able to advance beyond our now-extinct cousins the Neanderthals. (Grades 9-12)

These segments from the PBS series The Human Spark are used to help students understand both the construction and context of some of the prehistoric tools which allowed early humans to survive and thrive.

These selected segments from THE HUMAN SPARK may used in the classroom alone or in conjunction with the lesson plan, Digging Up the Truth, to teach how archeologists discover and examine artifacts and use them to formulate theories explaining how humans were able to advance beyond our now-extinct cousins the Neanderthals.

Take a look at the excavations at Scladina, a deep cave only recently discovered outside Liege, Belgium, where Neanderthals lived 100,000 years ago.

Alan Alda confronts the puzzle of why our ancestors got the Spark and evolved into us, while the first humans to leave Africa for Europe--the Neanderthals--never did.

In this video, archaeologist Michel Toussaint describes how the first discovery of a Neanderthal skull in 1829 was ahead of its time.

Veronica Waweru describes some of her game-changing research on ancient hunting and what it was like to work with our television crew.

Alan Alda learns that what had been believed to be a purposeful burial of a Neanderthal child now isn’t looking like such solid proof of ritualistic behavior.