Subject: Social Studies
Topic:Early Humans
Grade Level:Sixth
Student Lesson :Early Humans  URL:http://ctap295.ctaponline.org/~crspeedy/student

Grade Level: Sixth Grade
Social Studies: Ancient Civilizations
Archaeological studies of the early physical and cultural development of mankind

 6.1 Students describe what is known through archaeological studies of the early physical and cultural development of mankind from
the Paleolithic Era to the agricultural revolution, in terms of:

        1.the hunter-gatherer societies and their characteristics, including the development of tools and the use of fire 
        2.the location of human communities that populated the major regions of the world and how humans adapted to a variety
          of environments 
        3.the climatic changes and human modifications of the physical environment that gave rise to the domestication of plants

1. Students will classify and distinguish the similiarities and differences of the different types of hominoids.
2. Students will be able to summarize their knowledge of 

Introductory Activity
Students will discuss their own personal beliefs about evolution. The teacher will provide the students will stories from different cultures about evolution and how man was created. Students will read and discuss these stories and make a venn diagram showing the similarities and difference between the cultural stories and their own beliefs. Student will then take their venn diagram a create a stories of their own about how man was created and has evolved.

Enabling Activity(ies)
Students will read and discuss the scientific theory of evolution according to their Social Studies textbook, encyclopedias, CD-Rom, internet and any other type of resource that is available to them.

Culminating Activity

Students will grouped in groups of 3-4 according their interest and ability. Each group will be responsible for researching one genre of the humanoid species. This research will include the common and technical name of the species, the time era this species was alive, lifestyle, hunting and survival practices, what types of tools this species had and any other important facts they can find about their species. Each group will create a multimedia presentation with any type of presentation software that is available for them to use. This presentation will illustrate and include all of their findings about their species. Each group will be responsible for showing their presentation to the class and be able to answer question from their peer and teacher

Introductory Activity
This is a good place to find out about evolution

This is a site about how the continents moved and created a land bridge during this time period

This site is pretty high level but has some good information about early humans and the fossils that  have been found

This site compares/contrasts apes and human

Funny stories about evolution

Sites with Cultural Stories about creation
http://homepages.go.com/~neon101/legends/0CreationStories.html
www.mythinglinks.org/ct~creation.html 
www.indians.org/welker/bookglen.htm
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/8/0,5716,117208+1+109402,00.html

This site has several different links to site on evolution vs creation

 
 

Enabling Activity

Take a virtual tour of the Lascaux Cave and see the paintings of prehistoric people. Learn about the location of the cave and its discovery on Thursday, September 12 1940 by four teenagers.

Learn about the adventures of discovery by seeing the cave pictures as they are found and cataloged in this site featuring the 1995 discovery of Chauvet Caves in Southern France.

Explore the world of hunter gatherers. Meet a shaman and the archaeologist who made some of these discoveries

This site has pictures of prehistoric stone monuments in Europe. 

This site explains how ancient humans made tools out of stone and wood, including the bow and arrow. 

Piece together the tale of America's first settlers through articles and classroom activities.

This site you can ask the experts questions about  your species

This site really is for a treasure hunt on the internet but it has some good information

Nice map of where prehistoric humans lived in Africa

This site has good information about hunters and gathers tool

Information about what early humans ate

Information about the paleolithic diet

Great timeline of the different species

Information about Neanderthals
http://unisci.com/stories/19994/1026991.htm
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/printable/1/0,5722,127621,00.html
http://www.angelfire.com/mi/dinosaurs/neanderthal.html

Information site on Homo Erectus

Facts and stories about ancient man

Stories about the creation of man

This site has several links to creation stories

Culminating Activity
Tutorials for Hyperstudio
www.algorithms.com/users/memorialhs/millville_schools/HyperStudio/Tutorials.html 
aitt.acadiau.ca/tutorials/Hyperstudio3/HyperStudio.htm 
www.scism.sbu.ac.uk/inmandw/tutorials/hmtools/hyperstudio

Tutorials for Power Point
http://www.actden.com/pp/
www.fgcu.edu/support/power.html
members.tripod.com/~ozpk/00PowerPoint
www.uwa.edu/lrc/online_tutorials.htm 

These will get you started. However, there are several other sites on the internet if you want to find more

Paradise Elementary
Paradise, CA
Christie Speed crspeedy@bcoe.butte.k12.ca.us
Last Revised: 05/07/2001