Anthro notes

AnthroNotes Volume 30 No. 2

Fall

2009

TEACHING HIGH SCHOOL ANTHROPOLOGY ^IN THE DIGITAL AGE

by

CarolynGecan

Imagine

³⁰high schooljuniors

and

seniorsengagingin a discussion of

human

evolution

on

the firstday of the

new

unit.Allhave opinions

on

thetopic.All

know

aboutthe"BigBang,"

Darwin and

survivalofthe^fittest.

A

fewcanexplain theconceptofpunctuatedequilibrium.

All are veteransofourschool'subiquitous ninth gradebi- ology course

and

severalhave taken

AP

Biologytoo.

They

havealreadycompletedashortwritingactivitybased

on

thesequestionsabout

human

evolutionaryhistory:

"What do

I

know

forsure?

What do

IthinkI

know? What would

Iliketo

know?" They

share writingsinsmallgroups,then sharegroupconclusionswiththeclass.

The

results?Semes-

ter aftersemester

"What do

^I

know

for sure?" has been thecategorywith almost nothinginit.

No

one,itseems,

would

be willing to stakeasemestergrade

on what

they already

know

"forsure"abouttheevolutionofhumanity!

When

I developed

my

school'sone-semester an- thropologyelective twentyoneyears ago,I wasalready a veteran teacher. Immediately I discoveredthat resources for high school students were scarce. For example, an appropriatehigh school textbookfor

my

studentswas non-

existent. FortunatelyI teachat a science

and

technology magnetschoolfullofbright kidswithaboveaveragereading

skills.

The competency

ofthese students allowed

me

to use an approachablecollege textbook suitable for an as- piringanthropologistbeginninga college major.Butitwas deadlydullforahigh school studenthopingtoexplorean interestingbut short-termelective.Fortunately,Ialso dis- covered theanthology

Annual

EditionsAnthropology89/90, publishedatthattimeby

Dushkin

PublishingGroup.

Add-

ing

Annual

Editions PhysicalAnthropologyroundedoutthe curriculum. Lack of funding to replacethe booksyearly coupled with the fact thatstudents neverpurchase their

own

textbooksinour schooldistrict

meant

thatthe

Annual

Editions quicklyagedinto collectionsofhistoricaldocu- ments.

The

earlyefforts at research projects

and

other enriching exploratoryactivitiespresented otherchallenges.

My

studentsusedtheclosestvenuelikelytohelptheir re- search, theschoollibrary.Theretheypickedthroughthe

card catalog, explored the reference section,

and

looked

forjournals that usuallywerenotinthelibrary'scollection.

Whatever

information they gleanedwasalmostcertain to besparse

and

outofdate.

The

few anthropology-themed filmsthenavailablewerevideotapesfromstate

and

county collections

which

oftendidnotarriveintimeforusedur- ingthe intended unit ofstudy. Lectureswereillustrated

with overheadtransparenciesorpersonalslidecollections

and

a trusty

Kodak

carrousel projector. In spite of en- couraging

my

studentstobeindependentlearners,thepau- cityofresources

meant

that they often learnedthe

same

thingatthe

same

time.

Because ofthe students' generalmaturityandabil- ity levels,theydidhavetheopportunityto

do some

ethno- graphic readingnot usually available to high school stu- dents.

They

read one or

more

ofthe following classics:

MarjorieShostak'sNisa,ColinTurnbull's

The

Forest People, ElizabethMarshallThomas'

The

HarmlessPeople,or

Napo-

leonChagnon's

Yanomamo. Through

reading, writing,

and

discussing thesebooks,the students'anthropologicalhori- zons were broadened.

Then

as now, field tripswereseverelylimitedto onetripper semesterto a destination suitable for the cur- riculum

and

not too far

away

from campus.Transporta- tion costs, travel restrictions,

and

time

away

from other classes dictated this one four-hour trip.

Our

choicewas

between

visiting the National Zoo's primates or the Smithsonian'sNatural History

Museum.

Giventhe choice, theclasschose apes overartifactseverytime.

The

Digital

Age

We

^started with a few esoteric

computer

labs

and

rudi- mentarysearchenginesinthe

mid

1990s.

We now

use

pow-

erful electronic databases accessible wirelessly

from

any

computer

intheschool

— ^and

^{availableto thestudentsin}

theirhomes.

While

theseadvanceshave spurred changes acrossthecurriculum,high schoolanthropologyhasbeen transformedby them.Take, forexample, teachingabout

human

evolution.

Page

10

AnthroNotes Volume 30 No. 2

Fall

2009

With

limitedaccess tocontemporaneousdiscov- eriesastheyunfoldedinthefieldorlab,high schoolteach- ers twentyyears ago

depended

mostly

on

popular press coverage of

new

finds.

A

^{rare fossil}

^hominid

^{in east Af-}

rica, acacheofstonetools, orPaleolithicbutcheringsite, allwereequallyremotefrom ourstudies.

The

high school librarysubscribedtoNationalGeographicMagazinebutnot the

AAA

^Journal.

When

AnthroNotesarrived inthe mail,I

diligendyphotocopiedanyarticlesabout

human

evolution for

my

students

— ^and

^{oftensavedthe stacksofcopies for}

subsequentsemesters. Ienthusiastically

welcomed

aclass set(30 copies) ofthe 1998 ^firstedition ofAnthropology Explored:TheBestofSmithsonianAnthroNotes, butcontinued photocopyingeach

new AnthroNotes

issue

when

itcame.

Now

with

AnthroNotes

online, I post the link

on

Blackboard.com.

An

added bonus oftheonline versionis

that

my

students benefitfromseeingtheillustrationsascrisp images infullcolor.

The

additionalperks

on

thewebsite encouragefurtherexploration.

Incredibly useful searchable databases such as

EBSCOHost

Research,

JSTOR,

^{ProQuest Direct,}

^and eHRAF (Human

RelationsAreaFiles)extendthereachof teacherandstudentalike.

Though

initiallyavailableonlywhile usingthe school's library workstations, thesetoolsare

now

accessiblefree ofcharge24/7

from

anywhere one canget WiFi.Thesedatabases provideaccess to

some

ofthe

most

recent scholarlypapers

on

discoveries

and

changingtheo-

riesabout

human

evolution. Recentselections in

my

^class

includedthefollowingarticlesthatcapturedtheinterestof

my

firstperiod studentsastheypreparedforseminar^dis- cussions.

None

^ofthe students were assigned to read a particulararticle

—

^{eachselectedsomethingthatappealed}

tohisorherinterests.

•

"Cooking Up

Bigger Brains"

by

Rachael Moeller

Gorman

inScientificAmerican,

De-

cember2007.

•

"The

^{Evolution of}

Human

Skin

and

Skin Color"by

Nina

G.Jablonskiin

Annual

Review ofAnthropology, 2004.

•

"What

Finnish

Grandmothers

Revealabout

Human

Evolution"by DavidBiello inScien-

tificAmerican,July2007.

• "Naturalselectionandthe elusivenessof hap- piness"

by Randolph M.

Nesse, published onlineAugust

2004

by

The

RoyalSociety.

•

"The

role ofclimate in

human

mitochon-

drial

DNA

evolution:

A

reappraisal"

by Chang

Sun,

Qing-Peng Kong, Ya-Peng Zhang

inGenomics2007.

A

^relatively recent

phenomenon,

the blog, has greatlyenlivenedtheclassroomscene.Blogsmaintainedby

scientistsworkinginthefieldorbyindividualsreporting

on new

scientificdiscoveriesallow studentsto

become

di- rectlyinvolved orto observelivelyexchanges

among

sci- entists.

By

goingtoScienceBlog,forexample,onecan read aboutArdi, theArdipithecusramidusskeletonfoundin1994, but

now making

a

new

set ofwaves in the world of paleoanthropology.

What

opinions arescientists posting about Ardiandthelatestclaimsbeing

made

aboutthebones?

To

observescientists' excitement or heartheirwordsfirst

hand,studentscanwatchon-line interviewsabout

new

dis- coveries

—

^{atanytimedayornightthatsuits}the students' schedules.

Whereas

once

we

^{looked at pictures of}ancient

hominid

skulls

and

skeletonspainstakinglytransferred to overhead transparencies or slides

—

the library only pos- sessingone copy of anyparticularpublication

— we now

search entire websites devoted to advancing our under- standingof

human

^evolution.

At Google

Images, for ex- ample,

my

studentscanviewphotosofArdi'steeth,bones,

and

skull. In addition theycan find a diagram showing Ardi's possibleplace

on

the

human

familytree, a

map

of whereshewasfound,

and

so on. IfI

want my

entireclass toviewtheseimagessimultaneouslyas

we

discussthem,I

turn

on my

SmartBoardwhichislinked to

my

laptop.

The computer

image is

shown on

theSmart Board bya ceil-

ing-mountedprojector.

As

a result,I havea gianttouch- screencomputerthatIcan manipulateinevery

way

identi- calto

what

Ican

do on my

^laptop

—

^{exceptthatthe screen}

is visible to the entire classroom.

A

student can use the Smart Boardto navigate theclasstootherimagesbyclick- ing

and

dragging as

would

be

done on

a laptop with a

mouse.

Once

Ilecturedaboutarchaeologicaldigsites

and showed

^slideswitha

Kodak

projector.

Now my

students takevirtual field trips to remote

and

wonderfulsites via

Page

11

AnthroNotes Volume 30 No. 2

Fall

2009

the

Web.

Creatinga

web

tourofreputablephotosites or

by

posting

my own Power

Point presentation

on

Blackboard.com, I cansend

my

students to theAfar re- gionofEthiopiawhere Ardi was foundor to thelegend- arysitenotfar

away

where

Donald

Johansen foundLucy.

Inamatterofminutes, they or^Ican cut

and

pasteimages ofbothskeletonsfora side-by-sidecomparisoninaPower Pointpresentation.Stonetoolscan be seeninsituorinthe hands ofascientist

who

has

removed them

fromthe dirt.

A

verypopularelementin the evolution portion ofthe course

comes when we

briefly study

non-human

primates.Although

we do

visittheNational

Zoo

toseethe primates first hand, in the classroom

we

^{have access to}

many more

animalsandplaces.

We

^can"visit"anothercon- tinent toseetheanimalsintheirnatural habitatsthanksto National Geographicvideofeedssuchasoneonlineshowing

"new bonobo

ape population discovered"thatwasposted in 2007.

At

another site, Primate Info

Net

(http://

pin.primate.wisc.edu/av/vocals/)studentscanlistentoover 80vocalizations ofanextensive

number

oflemurs,

mon-

keys,

and

apes. These

sound

files can greatly enhance a studentgroup PowerPointpresentation!

Inspiteofthese

and many

otherenhancementsto teachinghighschoolanthropology,the Digital

Age

imposes special burdens as well.

Too many

students are content withthefastest

and most

efficientsourceforgatheringin- formationtogetanassignmentfinished:Wikipedia.

While

gatheringso

much

informationinonelocationmighthave positiveaspects,itdoes not helptodays

young

researchers developresearchskillsandcriticalthinking. Infact,itdoes just the opposite.

A

few clicks, students spot the desired information, copy, paste, finish.

No

questionsasked,not tomentiontheproblemthatthey

may

havejustplagiarized materialwithoutthinkingaboutwhattheyhave done.More- over,withso

many

^sitesavailable to

them

worldwide,stu- dentsneedto learnthe differencebetweencrackpots

and

reliable scientists just as

much

astheyneededto

when

their sourceswerelibrarybooks, encyclopedias,

and

hardcop-

iesofjournal ormagazinearticles.

Modeling good

search techniquesforstudents

and

helping

them

recognizerepu- tablesourcesisvitaltotheireducation.

When

using onlinedata,opportunitiesforplagia- rismandmisappropriationoffilesandinformationabound.

Althoughastudent

may

excelatmanipulation ofdata

and

pictures to

make

anamazingPowerPoint presentation, judg-

ingaccuracy

must

be onlypartoftheteacher'sevaluation of the work.

The

necessity of asking questions about sources,having students

show

theirresearchpaths

and

fo- cusing

on whose

wordstheyusedisavitalpartofinstruc- tion in the DigitalAge.Teachingstudents

how

they can obtain permission from owners of web-based data can help

them become

responsible consumers

and

users of such information.

I

am

fortunatethatIhaveremainedinthe teach- ing profession as long as I have.

Now

with

my

students oftenplacedintheroleofguide,I'mexploringthe trans- formativepotentialofpodcasts,blogs

and

wikis.

The

revo- lutionincurriculumwrought bythe Digital

Age

advances haveretooled

my

courseandrefreshed

my

teachinginways

I couldnot have imagined

more

than twenty-one years ago. Learningin aDigital

Age

classroomisanenriching,

communal

experienceforstudentandteacheralike.

When

confronted by the

many

questions for

which

I have

no

answers,I

am

asexcitedas

my

studentsaretosearchonline for information

and

answers

— ^and

^allthe

new

questions that arise from those answers. I

hope

future changes in technologycontinueto

make

teachinghigh school anthro- pologyasexcitingforthenextgenerationofteachersasit

has beenforme.

Carolyn Gecan,anAnthroNoteseditor, teachesanthropol- ogy' at

Thomas

Jefferson

High

SchoolforScienceandTechnol-

ogy

in Fairfax, Virginia.

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