Understanding vocabulary helps you access course content and become a better reader, a better writer, and a better communicator. This word wall activity will help you begin to learn some of the key vocabulary from the unit.

In this activity, you’ll work with your class to create a word wall using the Unit 6 vocabulary.

Your teacher will assign a vocab card to each of you. Once you get yours, take a few minutes to look it up in the Vocab Guide and then examine the unit itself (click around and quickly skim the content) to see where in the unit your word might be most applicable. Then, add as many antonyms to your card for your word as possible. Be careful if you decide to use the “related words” section from the vocab guide—it doesn’t distinguish between synonyms and antonyms. Your teacher will give you a limited amount of time to write antonyms. Then, the people with the most correct antonyms at the end of the time will put their words on the word wall first.

Your teacher may add some fun twists to this assignment, so be sure to listen closely for directions!

In this unit, we finally get to humans! Well, to be fair, we met a lot of humans in the first five units as we learned about how our understanding of the Universe evolved. But this unit is all about humans and how we evolved into us! You’ll learn about how early humans lived and shared information with each other, including cultural practices like belief systems, innovations such as tool making, and how they made and used the things they needed.

The focus of this unit is on early humans and their ability to collectively learn. Well, the whole course is about collective learning, but in this unit, we really get into the progression of how collective learning allowed early humans to generate new innovations that were based upon previous ideas. You’ll learn about how humans evolved and how we used our large, complex brains to think of new ideas that led us to where we are today and where we might be headed in the future.

Preview

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Factual

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. Why should we study the history of early humans from about 250,000 years ago when the written history of human societies has only been around for about 5,000 to 6,000 years?
2. How do we know about our connections to other primates?
3. What does interdisciplinary mean?
4. What are the ingredients and Goldilocks Conditions needed for the new complexity of humans and their ability to collectively learn?
5. How do we know that early humans who lived before the invention of writing were capable of collective learning?
6. How did early humans live, and how did they find food and share ideas?

Thinking Conceptually

1. At the end of the video, Rachel points out that she made “a pretty bold claim about humans being unique.” Do you believe her? What evidence can you think of that would validate her claim? What evidence can you think of that would prove her claim wrong?
2. Rachel provides one example—the improvement of tools over time—to explain how we know that early humans were capable of collective learning. Can you think of another example of how we know that early humans collectively learned before the invention of writing?

This activity provides you with a chance to start thinking about the evolutionary process of our early ancestors. Later in this lesson, you’ll cover the evolution of man more formally.

Your teacher will give you just a few minutes to figure out what order you think the images on the worksheet should be in. Use your intuition, logic, and anything you’ve learned before to arrange the images in order, from our earliest ancestors to our own species, Homo sapiens. You’re not expected to have a lot of knowledge about this topic but do your best to try and figure it out.

After you’ve arranged the images, jot down everything you can that differentiates humans from our ancestors. Be prepared to share out some of the differences you come up with. Later in the lesson, you’ll have a chance to form a deeper understanding of how humans evolved from our early ancestors, and you’ll see how that compares with what you came up with here.

Once humans started to use collective learning, we began to create, innovate, and manipulate in ways unlike any other species. Even more powerful than these new skills and techniques themselves was that they were widely shared, preserved, and built upon through language and interconnection. This set the stage for the emergence of agriculture, civilizations, and the modern world.

In this video, David Christian gives you an overview of Threshold 6: Humans and Collective Learning. This threshold is essential to the Big History story as it will help you understand what makes humans different from other species of animals.

Preview

As animals started to evolve on Earth, they were able to do more complex things. However, every generation had to learn everything on its own: where to find good food, what water was safe to drink, and so on. Early humans developed the ability to teach one another. This allowed one generation to teach the next, so future generations of humans didn’t have to learn the same things over and over.

Key Ideas – Factual

Think about the following questions as you watch the video:

1. What event allowed mammals to evolve and flourish on Earth?
2. When did our species (Homo sapiens) evolve?
3. What are the ingredients and Goldilocks Conditions necessary for the new complexity of collective learning?

Thinking Conceptually

Why was the ability to collectively learn so important for humans? Can you think of some examples of collective learning? You should be able to provide at least one example from the distant past and one from the present or more recent past. Be prepared to share your answers with the class.

This video sets the stage for the rest of the course as it introduces the concepts of human uniqueness, the impact of agriculture on human development, and the importance of collective learning. The dominance of humans over the biosphere would not have been possible without the distinctly human ability to collectively learn.

Crash Course Big History Episode #6. This video is an important introduction to human evolution. You’ll learn about the evolutionary process that took place from the great apes to Homo sapiens. You’ll also learn the truth about a common misconception: Monkeys are distant cousins to humans, but we did not evolve from them.

Preview

The evolution of humans didn’t happen overnight. The process took millions of years and took many different paths before the evolution of our species—Homo sapiens—occurred. This is the first unit to delve into humans and how we got here, and it makes some interesting and important points about the evolutionary process. The Greens also provide an introduction to foraging and the concept of human nature.

Key Ideas – Factual

Think about the following questions as you watch the video:

1. Why is it wrong to say that humans evolved from monkeys or chimps?
2. What are some common characteristics shared by humans and other primates like chimpanzees?
3. Why did our primate ancestors begin to move out of the trees and become bipedal?
4. Australopithecines come before the genus Homo in our evolutionary tree. What are some characteristics of australopithecines?
5. Homo habilis, also known as “handy man,” had larger brains and made tools, but evidence has shown no signs of a substantial increase in collective learning. Why not?
6. What new things did Homo ergaster (erectus) do?
7. What is collective learning? Why is it important to the story of human evolution?
8. What were some advantages foragers had in comparison to peasant farmers or modern office workers?

Thinking Conceptually

What side would you take in the Hobbes v. Rousseau debate, and why?

Now it’s time for you to document, in detail and in your own words, the process of the evolution of early humans to modern humans by creating a comic strip. This activity will help you to formalize your understanding of the evolution of life and make it easier for you to remember the stages in the future.

Causation
It is often a natural part someone’s thought process, when putting things in chronological order, to consider what caused each thing to happen. While this activity focuses on the evolution of life, you can also consider causation as part of this. Consider using causal language when you write your comic.

Create a comic strip that explains the evolutionary process. Your comic strip needs to be at least five panels, but make it longer if you want. Use the template provided here or another one your teacher has approved for your comic strip. For each panel, draw (or trace) a picture and include text that explains what’s going on. Remember to come up with your own explanations – no copying and pasting. Don’t obsess about being exact. Instead, highlight the different attributes and characteristics of each stage in the evolutionary process and be sure to include information on the seven evolutionary steps listed below. Get the facts right and have fun!

• LUCA
• plants and animals
• primates
• apes (hominoids)
• great apes (hominids)
• bipedal primates (hominines)
• humans (Homo sapiens)

The Leakeys’s work in Africa led to the discovery of fossils and tools much older than previously found in Europe and Asia. These discoveries opened the door to new theories about the origin of human life and our evolutionary connection to primates.

This article brings anthropology and archaeology to life, as you get a first-hand look at how Mary and Louis Leakey used archaeology to discover the origin of our human ancestors.

Skimming for Gist

Prior to the Leakeys’s discoveries in Africa, most scientists believed that early humans evolved in Europe or Asia. When Mary Leakey discovered a skull that was dated at 1.75 million years ago, theories began to change. The Leakeys chose to search for tools and fossils in Africa at a time when most people had ignored the continent as a potential starting place for human evolution. The results of their archaeological digs inspired others to investigate in this region thus collectively changing our view of human ancestry.

Understanding Content

As you read the article more carefully a second time through, think about the following questions.

1. How did the Leakeys’s work in Africa change our view on human origins?
2. Why is Lucy such an important find?

Thinking Conceptually

What are some of the reasons scientists prior to the Leakeys believed that humans originated in Europe or Asia? How did their discoveries lead to both scientific and social changes?

Goodall is now recognized as a pioneer in the field of primatology. Her work has become the basis and the standard for other scientists who study animal behavior. The patience and dedication she employed while studying chimpanzees led to amazing discoveries about their social groupings, use of tools, and the similarities between primate and human behavior.

As strange as it may sound, we can actually learn a great deal about our early ancestors by studying primates. Jane Goodall, the pioneer of primatology, closely studied communities of chimpanzees in Tanzania and elsewhere.

Skimming for Gist

Jane Goodall’s interest in animals led her to contact Louis Leakey while she was working in Africa as a secretary. Leakey believed that Goodall would be the perfect person to study chimpanzee behavior in the wild, which was a something that no one had attempted prior to this. Goodall’s work changed the scientific world’s perception of primate behavior and led to the discovery that these animals shared many social and behavioral traits with humans.

Understanding Content

As you read the article more carefully a second time through, think about the following questions.

1. What do scientists in the field of primatology do?
2. What are some surprising discoveries that primatologists have made about primates?

Thinking Conceptually

How exactly did Goodall’s work contribute to our understanding of both primate and human behavior? Do you trust that the fields of anthropology, archaeology, and primatology are reliable sources of evidence?