1. Welcome to Rift Valley Airlines
Flight 330
Please take your seat.
2. How can learning about human
origins anchor our students’
understanding of Global History
and Geography?
Friday, March 1, 2013
3. Goals for Teachers
• Share insights into how to frame
student learning.
• Useful activities for integrating human
origins into Global classes.
4. Goals for Students
• To begin to build a foundation of
knowledge that will broaden their
perspective on Global History.
• To practice the skills of
Anthropologists and Historians. These
skills can be applied throughout the
Global course.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Who am I?
• Matt Roberts
• Social Studies Teacher at Brooklyn
Frontiers High School
• Many years teaching US History, Global,
PIG, Economics, and lots of electives
• Traveled to Kenya last summer on a
Fund for Teachers fellowship.
(Fundforteachers.ORG)
11. Brooklyn Frontiers High School
• A public school in downtown Brooklyn
• All students enter 9th grade at least 2
years behind
• Opened in 2011
• Students take PIG, US1 and US2 in
their first year.
• Students take Anthropology as an
elective, prior to taking Global
12. How does Brooklyn Frontiers
define Anthropology?
• The study of mankind,
starting with the origins of
humanity.
13. Why Anthropology?
• To start at the beginning
• To start with something new.
• To build confidence, perspective as well
as critical thinking skills.
14. Who are we traveling with?
What experiences have we
had in learning and teaching
Anthropology?
27. …by communicating with one another early
humans can share knowledge and learn
from each other. This will lead to a major
turning point in human history…
29. Early humans establish the first
civilizations. These are permanent
settlements, in river valleys.
30. …this is the Neolithic Revolution. Humans
learn how to grow food and domesticate
animals. This will improve their diets
greatly and will lead to the creation of
civilizations.
42. Stone Tool Activity
• Find the stone best suited to your task
• Be ready to explain why you chose this
stone and how you might modify it to
improve its effectiveness
43. Why do homo sapiens sapiens come in
different colors?
44.
45. The answer has to do with…
• The sun…and the intensity of the sun’s rays…
• And, Vitamin D…
46. Vitamin D.
Humans need
Vitamin D to
help with the
absorption of
calcium.
48. Vitamin D and survival
Vitamin D not common in most foods.
(Some modern foods are “fortified” with Vitamin D, meaning it is
added.”
49. Vitamin D and survival
Early humans did not have fortified foods,
but, the human body can make Vitamin D with
the help of the sun. We need ultraviolet
radiation to help us make Vitamin D.
50. Humans originated in Africa’s Great Rift
Valley. This is near the equator, in the
tropical zone. It receives plenty of sunlight
all year.
51. Notice how in the far north, the intensity of
the sunlight is less. This is true also in the
far south.
52. Here is another view. Notice how the arrows
point directly at Africa, all year.
53. So, Africa was a good place for humans.
There was plenty of sunlight to help us make
Vitamin D.
54. In fact, early humans in Africa likely had high
levels of melanin in their skin. Melanin blocks some
of the sun’s energy. This protects the human body
from too much radiation.
55. Early humans living in Africa had a high level of
melanin. The more melanin you have, the darker
your skin is.
58. They moved to areas that had
less intense levels of UVA rays
from the sun.
59. People with high levels of melanin could not get enough of the
sun’s rays in these areas. Their skin blocked out the sun.
They could not make enough Vitamin D….this affected calcium
absorption.
60. Gradually, people with higher levels of
melanin died off in the northern areas.
Why? Because their bodies were not
able to make enough Vitamin D.
61. People with lower levels of melanin survived.
They had lighter skin. Their skin did not block
out as much of the sun’s energy, so their
bodies were able to make the Vitamin D the
needed.
62. So, the farther north humans moved, the lighter their skin
became. They needed light skin because the sun’s rays were
less intense in the north. They needed to soak up a lot of the
sun’s energy to make enough Vitamin D to survive.
63. This happened very slowly over thousands
of years and hundreds of generations.
64. By the time of Columbus, groups of homo
sapiens sapiens with similar skin colors were
living in specific parts of the planet. All
because of the sun’s rays and Vitamin D.
65. As humans learned to travel faster…they
met people with different skin colors….
67. Light skinned people are maladapted for tropical
areas. This means that if they live in the tropical
areas, they might have health problems…
68. Dark skinned people are maladapted to northern areas. This means
that when people with high levels of melanin live too far from the
tropics, they will not get enough sunlight. Their skin blocks it out.
Not enough Vitamin D.
69. Vitamin D deficiency can
contribute to:
• Bone disease,
heart disease,
diabetes, and
some
cancers…
among other
problems
70. What can be done?
• Light skinned
people who live in
the tropics can
wear sunscreen.
• Darker skinned
people who live in
the north can take
a Vitamin D
supplement.
71. All of this shows that “race” is
only skin deep.
• Below the skin, we
are all very much
the same.
72. Some Anthropologists believe that the
idea of “race” is not important,
because we are all part of the “human
race.”
77. “I have a Dream”
Martin Luther King: Anthropologist:
“I have a dream that ‘I hope that in the
my four children will future judgements
one day live in a about a person will be
nation where they are made based on the
not judged by the person’s actions and
color of their skin but not on how much
by the content of melanin he/she has.”
their character.”
