{"id":5398,"date":"2016-04-28T09:53:43","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T14:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/?p=5398"},"modified":"2016-04-28T09:53:43","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T14:53:43","slug":"hominid-skull-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/?p=5398","title":{"rendered":"Hominid Skull Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hominid1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This year, inspired by previous conversations in this group about using hominid skulls in the classroom, my colleagues and I worked to develop a lab analyzing variation in hominid skulls. \u00a0The original scaffolding for the lab came from an internet find created by\u00a0ENSI<\/a>\u00a0(my typical process usually involves taking ideas from what others have done and mushing it all together until it resembles some sort of coherent learning experience. \u00a0Sometimes it works<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The basic idea was that students would look at a variety of hominid and primate skulls, take measurements of some key adaptive features, and attempt to interpret the evolutionary significance of said adaptations\/changes. The original lab seems to be directed towards students with a more complete background in anatomy. \u00a0Since we were working with freshman biology students (and our goal was not to teach expertise in anatomy) we refocused on a few key features and walked the students through each of those measurements in the lab. \u00a0Our main focus(hope<\/em>), after the measurements were complete, was to have the students really think about why each of the species had the characteristics that they did and how we got to where we are today.<\/p>\n

I began with a discussion on what a hominid was and a short discussion on human evolution. \u00a0I then showed them “Dawn of Humanity<\/a>” which is an amazing NOVA special on the discovery of Homo naledi<\/em>. \u00a0It’s 2 hours long so I only showed the second half that focuses on the discovery of this new species. \u00a0It is really an amazing video that shows what all goes into the discovery of a hominid.<\/p>\n

Next, I introduced the lab and discussed the expecta\"hominid3\"<\/a>tions and demonstrated a few key measurements and how to use the calipers. \u00a0Then I set them free. \u00a0I had one hominid(or primate) on each lab station and had each group take all the measurements on their specimen (about 15 minutes for the first one) and then rotate to a new lab bench and start over with the new specimen. \u00a0They get quicker each time (about 8-10 minutes on average per specimen) 7 specimen in total. \u00a0You could either\u00a0\"hominid2\"<\/a>print out the instructions for measurements (in color would be best), or I just had\u00a0them as a pdf and had the students access them with ipads.<\/p>\n

After measurements are complete there is a 1 paragraph description of the specimen (provided by “Skulls Unlimited”) that does a nice job describing the organism. \u00a0This information, paired with the measurements are what the students use to answer the analysis questions. \u00a0I also have the students choose 1-3 key measurements that they feel early illustrate transitional adaptations to graph. (shown above)<\/p>\n

I was a little hesitant to dig into this\u00a0<\/em>(get it?) at first because I am certainly no expert on hominid skull anatomy (hopefully we didn’t make any big errors in our set up but feel free to let us know if we did). However, once we got started and I saw the results I was very pleased. \u00a0As long as the students took the time to read the species descriptions and took careful measurements, they did a good job and demonstrated a good understanding of the material. \u00a0So, here you go. \u00a0From our classrooms to yours.<\/p>\n

I hope I attached the documents correctly…<\/p>\n

_Homonid cranium measurements STUDENT<\/a><\/p>\n

_Hominid Bone Clone Descriptions<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year, inspired by previous conversations in this group about using hominid skulls in the classroom, my colleagues and I worked to develop a lab analyzing variation in hominid skulls. \u00a0The original scaffolding for the lab came from an internet find created by\u00a0ENSI\u00a0(my typical process usually involves taking ideas from what others have done and
+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1187,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_s2mail":"yes","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kabt-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t