Chapter 6 Student Activities

Handling Fossil Casts and Tools

Many anthropology departments have fossil casts. If yours does, bring some into class. Divide the students into small groups and pass out a skull or bone cast to each group. Ask them to identify any outstanding characteristics of the object. After five minutes, ask them to pass it on to another group, and repeat until each group has had an opportunity to look at least five or six casts. Ask them to analyze any similarities or differences between the different casts they examined. If stone tools or tool reproductions are available, you can create a similar exercise, even possibly also giving the students a chance to cut or hammer objects.

Primate Bipedalism: Understanding Standing Up

The website “Becoming Human” is a project of the Institute for Human Origins, which is based at Arizona State University. It has numerous exercises and classroom activities related to human evolution. One of these is called “Primate Bipedalism: Understanding Standing Up,” in which students “build” (virtually) an ape and a human from a bunch of mixed up bones. On the way, students learn about the structures that enable bipedalism and those that make it obligatory. The exercise is here: http://www.becominghuman.org/node/building-bodies