Think of three reasons why early humans might have migrated from their origin.
Classify your ideas into:
push factors -negative factors that pushed early humans away from their first home
pull factors -factors that attracted early humans to new places.
Note down your ideas.
Now pair with a partner and compare your answers.
Share your ideas with the whole class, and see if you can agree on a consensus View.
Guidance - Resources
Prehistoric Human Migrations: History & Movements
There are certain parts of science that are considered to be cemented in stone. For instance, no one really questions that gravity is what keeps us from floating around or that red blood cells carry oxygen. However, when science dabbles in the theories of man's origin, there is a lot left up for grabs. In other words, many different theories or suppositions abound, and more often than not, more questions are asked than answered.
Keeping this in mind, our topic for today - the prehistoric migration of humans - is based in archaeological theories that often have the habit of being overturned as new discoveries are, literally, unearthed. For this reason, we'll stay rather general, realizing that even the dating of human migration is a hotly debated topic. After all, since 'prehistoric' actually denotes the time before written record, most scientists admit they are working to put together a puzzle, often times with little solid evidence on which to hang their hats.
Beginning our discussion of human migration: paleontology, the study of fossils of animals from ancient times, specifically prehistoric times, asserts that human life began in Africa. Working to support this assumption, some of the earliest fossil records of Homo sapiens or modern humans, have been found in the country of Ethiopia. With their dating being rather up for grabs, they are placed as belonging to a timeframe of over 200,000 years ago.
Moving away from origin and digging deeper into migration, archaeological record asserts that humans began migrating out of Africa about 60,000 years ago. Although no one can be certain why this migration occurred or when it occurred, many believe that a severe climate change may have been the catalyst, specifically the Ice Age, a prehistoric period marked by intense glacial activity. Continuing with this theory, it is asserted that the human population of the earth drastically dropped during the first migration out of Africa.
As the climate of the earth started to stabilize, many believe that some humans began moving out of Africa, going into what is often coined Eurasia, the landmass made up of Europe and Asia. During this migration it's believed that they crossed into Eurasia by way of a strait between the present-day small African nation of Djibouti and Yemen. From here, it's believed these rather adventurous humans moved eastward into places like India, Southeast Asia and even, eventually, Australia!
Bringing our discussion back to the lands of Africa, some scientists believe a second wave of migrators left Africa a little bit later. However, these guys decided to travel by land, moving into the regions of today's Middle East and Central Asia. From these locations, these early humans were able to move into Europe and the more Northern regions of Asia.
Sticking with our travelers heading into North Asia, it's believed these risk-takers braved the hazardous weather and continued north, toward the East Asian Arctic region. It's asserted that there they found a large landmass that had most likely been created by the tumultuous weather of the Ice Age. Moving across this landmass, which connected Asia to the Americas, these travelers began the human trek, which would eventually find humans inhabiting from modern-day Alaska to the tip of Argentina!
The word prehistoric denotes the time before written record. It is the job of paleontology, the study of fossils and animals from ancient times, specifically prehistoric time, to explain this era. According to paleontology, modern humans or Homo sapiens originated in Africa. However, it's asserted that the Ice Age, a prehistoric period marked by intense glacial activity, was an eventual catalyst for human migration out of Africa.
With this, it's theorized that a first group of migrants moved out of Africa by way of a strait between modern-day Djibouti and Yemen. This saw the first human movement into Eurasia, the landmass made up of Europe and Asia. From here, the migrants moved into India, Southeast Asia, and even Australia.
It's also theorized that a second group of humans later migrated out of Africa. However, it's asserted that this second wave saw humans moving by land into the modern-day Middle East and into Europe and the more Northern parts of Asia. Eventually, some of these migrants braved the weather of the Arctic and discovered a land bridge, which allowed them access into the Americas. From here, human migration continued all the way from Alaska to the tip of South America.
After gathering facts from this lesson on prehistoric human migrations, you might try to:
Define prehistoric and paleontology
Consider the impact of the Ice Age on human migration
Evaluate the predominant theory of Homo sapiens' migration from Africa
Discuss speculations on the ways in which humans migrated into the Americas
Suggested Videos
Goal: Your task is to prepare 4 min presentation and an activity that you can do in the class to answer one of the most significant questions in science which is where did we come from? (Think about the variety of reasons why early humans might have migrated from their origins).
Role: You are a scientist, and you would like to help your classmates to create awareness about our roots and have a deeper understanding of the push and pull factors of our migration? And most importantly think creatively and critically to make connections between movements that happened in the past and modern world migrations.
Audience: Your audience is grade 7 students that are the reason why you have to be careful with your scientific literacy (language). Level of your presentations should not be either too high or low.
Situation: The challenge involves; gathering information and understand what happened in the past and creating a relationship between the history of humankind and the current issues of life.
(Please focus on migrations).
Products:
You have a freedom to create
a powerpoint presentation,
Google Slides
Hard copy poster
Flier
A role play
short video
A rap song or any other type
Artwork with a powerful and a meaningful message to our context.
Prepare a powerful speech
Standards and expectations:
The student is able to:
i. recall scientific knowledge (Can you why migrations happened in the past?)
ii. apply scientific knowledge and understanding to suggest solutions to problems set in familiar situations (What factors would you change if you would like to stop people from migrating? )
iii. Apply information to make judgments. (How would this knowledge that you gain in these lessons be useful in your daily life?)
Links to: individual and societies
Scientists who study the history and behaviour of human beings are known as anthropologists. The evidence for early human history is gathered using scientific techniques by archeologists.
homo erectus homo sapiens neanderthals homo sapiens