This E-Sheet, from a Science NetLinks lesson, contains activities and articles related to the four areas of anthropology: archaeology, physical anthropology, cultural anthropology and linguistics.
This lesson challenges students to examine the evolution of various species of hominids from their earliest existence approximately 4.5 million years ago to today. Students will work in small groups, each group researching one of the ten 'stages' of hominids and then creating a poster that incorporates their research by using both images and words. In creating these posters, the class will be creating a comprehensive, detailed timeline of the evolution of hominids.
Learn about the evidence and controversies surrounding who the first Americans were, where they came from, and how they arrived.
Explore a remote Judean cave where ancient Jews sought refuge nearly 2,000 years ago.
In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students explore the way African-American author Zora Neale Hurston makes use of closely observed black folklife in her novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God." Students read the novel, research Hurston's own life and ethnography, listen to her WPA recordings of folksongs and folktales, and compare transcribed folk narrative texts with the novel itself.
Learn about the Piltdown forgery, the people who may have been involved, and the potential reasons for the hoax.
This unit of two EDSITEment lessons discusses the differences between five Native American tribes within the U.S. Students learn about customs and traditions such as housing, agriculture, and ceremonial dress for the Tlingit, Dine, Lakota, Muscogee, and Iroquois peoples.
Explore the centuries-long effort to understand the Maya's complex hieroglyphic script and learn about the breakthroughs that led to the code being deciphered.
In this Xpeditions lesson, one of a multi-part unit on the Genographic Project, students examine markers of human migration, uncovered by such fields as archaeology, paleontology, cultural anthropology, linguistics, and history. Students begin by conducting a hands-on study of patterns of genetic markers. They consider ways in which contextual information provides scientists with clues about ancient migratory patterns. An extension activity provides an opportunity for students to investigate the controversy of who first migrated to the Americas and develop hypotheses based on scientific research using a collection of Web sites and the Atlas of the Human Journey.
This page from EDSITEment features resources relating to Halloween, and presents information about festivals of the dead from around the world. Learn more about these festivals by visiting the EDSITEment lesson plans and EDSITEment-reviewed Web sites referenced on this page.
In this lesson, students learn about recent archaeological challenges to theories of human origins. They then research the history and geography of various African regions to create proposals for future excavations.
In this Xpeditions lesson, students explore how geographical features, both physical and cultural, of a place can give us insights into the lives of the people who have settled there, with Egypt as the primary example. Students use maps to examine the design and location of ancient Egypt's tombs and pyramids. They examine cultural and geographic evidence as clues for understanding the structure and placement of these historical landmarks. They then explore the implications of caring for these structures in the future.
In this lesson, students will consider the various ways geography has affected civilization, then research how various species of ancient humans were affected by geography and climate. They then create dioramas illustrating their findings for a class exhibit, and write journal entries from the perspective of their assigned prehistoric people.
