Post date: Jul 23, 2013 4:41:24 PM
Essential Questions:
1) What is evolution? Why is it important?
2) Who are our hominid ancestors? How and why did they evolve?
3) How do I research for the Little Big History project?
Today we recapped Threshold 5 of Big History: the appearance of life. We also listed to David Christian in the Unit 5 Main Lecture entitled "How did Life Begin and Change?" where he talks about the Goldilocks Conditions of life and several mini-thresholds leading to our species. (Video: Part 1, Part 2).
We talked about Darwin and evolution. As material supplemental to today's lecture, you can read about Charles Darwin and evolution, about Watson, Crick and Franklin and DNA, or about mass extinctions on Earth. There's also the second episode in the Claim Testers comic! You can also read about Lucy, the earliest found Australopithicus or about Jane Goodall and her study with the chimps.
We then watched the Unit 6 Main Lecture entitled "How did our Ancestors Evolve?" providing evidence for evolution and our hominid ancestors. (Video: Part 1, Part 2) And, just for fun, here's the evolution of Homer Simpson.
For tomorrow, please meet us at the museum, on the steps outside the front entrance, at 11AM sharp. The museum is on Central Park West, spanning an area of several blocks, between 77th and 81st.
We finished class by talking about researching for the Little Big History project. Your annotated bibliographies are due on Wednesday, July 31st.
In anticipation of seminar on Thursday, please prepare the following questions:
We have four texts for this seminar"
Lastly, here are Little Big History documents: