6. Explore human evolution

Plenary

Rocket Thinking - Teacher Notes: A key question is an open-ended prompt that can facilitate discussion, address misconceptions or give children the opportunity to probe more deeply into a topic. In this hypothetical question, encourage the children to think about current human habits and needs, and how future adaptations may account for these. You can provide media to support this, such as a clip from the film WALL-E which shows future robot humans. Some other ideas could include bodies that age more slowly and can live for much longer, bigger brains, and increased visual and auditory abilities.

To extend this discussion further, encourage the children to consider the interplay between technology and evolution. It is likely that technology will be the greatest driving force behind any evolutionary change, so how could this work? Ask them also to consider climate change and how that might impact human evolution. 

This rocket thinking question will round off this evolution unit and allow the children to understand that evolution is still happening. 

Teacher Mastery

Human evolution is the evolutionary process that led to the development of modern humans, Homo sapiens. The human lineage can be traced back to our earliest ancestors, which were small, ape-like creatures that lived in Africa more than six million years ago. Over time, these early hominids evolved into many different species, some of which are no longer alive today. Here is a brief overview of human evolution:

Sahelanthropus tchadensis: This species, which lived in Chad about seven million years ago, is one of the earliest known hominids. It had a small brain and a mixture of ape-like and human-like features.

Australopithecus: This group of hominids, which includes famous specimens such as "Lucy," lived in Africa between about four and two million years ago. They had a more upright posture and a larger brain than earlier hominids, and some were capable of making simple tools.

Homo habilis: This species, which lived in Africa about two million years ago, is considered the first member of the genus Homo. They had a larger brain and more advanced tool-making abilities than earlier hominids.

Homo erectus: This species, which lived in Africa and Asia from about two million to 100,000 years ago, had a larger brain and more advanced technology than previous hominids. They were also the first hominids to leave Africa and spread throughout the world.

Homo neanderthalensis: This species, which lived in Europe and Asia from about 400,000 to 40,000 years ago, was closely related to modern humans. They had a large brain and were well adapted to living in cold climates, but they eventually went extinct.

Homo sapiens: This species, which emerged in Africa about 300,000 years ago, is the only surviving member of the genus Homo. They have a large brain and are capable of language, art, and complex social behaviour.

The study of human evolution involves many different fields of science, including paleoanthropology, genetics, archaeology, and more. By studying the fossil record and comparing the DNA of different species, scientists can gain a better understanding of the evolutionary history of our species and the complex processes that led to our current form.