Gearing up for teaching human evolution?
Gearing up for teaching human evolution?
I had an e-mail from a long-time reader today, asking what readings I assign for my course in human evolution. As some of you know, this is a constant issue for me. I've been working on a textbook for that course for a long time. I put the project on hold a couple of years ago, as I was gearing up for tenure, but I've been finishing it up this year.
Courses titled, "Human Evolution," can vary a lot in content -- some are introductory, first-year courses; others are more advanced. I tend to teach this as an intermediate-level course. I assume some background in college-level biology. My intermediate "Human Evolution" course itself serves as an introduction to higher-level undergraduate courses, such as "Evolution of the Genus Homo". So there is some reason to be comprehensive and not merely jump from topic to topic.
I tend to assign readings, including review articles and new research articles. That can be a tough approach, because some gaps are hard to fill. But then, no textbook fills all the gaps, either.
I know a lot of folks out there have interesting solutions to teaching human evolution. I'm putting together a page of resources, linking to syllabi from different human evolution courses around the world. I think it will be helpful to see which review articles are being used in courses, which elements of the fossil and archaeological records get attention, and how anthropologists are choosing to teach new results from genetics.
I'm opening comments on this post, hoping that some readers can share some of the things they consider "best practices" or features of their human evolution courses.
If you just post a link to your syllabus or course schedule, that would be great. I'm going to put these links together with an annotated reading list on a permanent page here.
Consider telling us about:
- Good popular articles for students.
- Dueling articles that illustrate debates in the field.
- Parts of the course you really hate to prepare every year -- Miocene apes, anyone?
- Blogs you recommend to your students.
I hope that this will help to build a resource that new teachers can use in the future. I think that some of these materials might be useful at the secondary level, or for home-schooled kids, where teachers are looking for ways to introduce anthropology or evolution into their curriculum. So please consider sending references to your excellent readings, the ones that get students engaged with the material, as well as the more difficult challenges you've faced.
Comments
Yes, it's true...
Comments are really open, for the first time ever!
It may take me a little while to make them look pretty, though -- I haven't had to work with them in my stylesheet before...
No help on teaching human
No help on teaching human evolution, but nice artwork!
Thanks!
...
Teaching Human Evo
Dr. Hawks,
I read your teachng human evolution site with some interest as I am teaching one of my own for the first time at Kean Univserity in New Jersey beginning later this month. As an historian of science, not a paleoanthropologist, I am looking at the historical and controversial aspects of the social impact of evolution. I spend time on the monkey trials, on creationists teachings like gap and day-age theory as well as intelligent design and the history of 'creation science.' I also spend time on the straight forward history of human evolution studies: discoveries of fossils, population replacement vs multiregionalism and other debates that are between scientists rather than just the religio/scientific ones. The course is called HIST4876 Human Evolution and Modern Society. Here is the link to the course webpage: http://www.kean.edu/~bregal/HIST4876.htm
For texts I use Bernard Wood's 'Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction' (Oxford, 2005) and my own 'Human Evoluiton: A Guide to the Debates' (ABC-CLIO, 2005). I also use a clutch of articles by Ronald Numbers, Eugenie Scott and others.
Hope this is of help.
Brian Regal
Thanks!
That's excellent, Brian -- Ron Numbers is on the faculty here, and this has been a huge topic this year, of all years, both inside and outside the university community.
I like the contrast you're drawing out between science-science debates and science-nonscience debates. I'm sure we'll get some more ideas about articles that present such debates, including the ones you mention.
Human Ev. Education
I highly recommend Conroy's "Reconstructing Human Origins." I have yet to find a better comprehensive overview of human evolution, either from the paleontological or genetic perspectives. As for articles I have found the following helpful:
D'Errico F. 2003. The invisible frontier. A multiple species model for the origin of behavioral modernity. Evolutionary Anthropology 12(4):188-202. doi:10.1002/evan.10113
Trinkaus E. 2005. Early Modern Humans. Annual Review of Anthropology 34:207-230. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.34.030905.154913
I'm going to stop here because there are simply too many, but both of these are excellent for the more recent stuff. Perhaps if I stumble upon some time later I'll send a few more article recommendations.
- moneduloides
new book
My fellow faculty member, Matt Cartmill, has a new textbook coming out (along with Fred Smith and Kaye Brown) on Human Evolution. I've seen a few excerpts, looks provocative. (And like you, John, Matt draws most of his figures). I think it'll be out in late March; it's called "The Human Lineage."
Rich Lawler
(Boston University)
Last year I took a course
Last year I took a course that combined Conroy's book with Relethford's "Genetics and the Search for Modern Human Origins," and I feel that the two really complimented one another. I thought Conroy's book was quite dense, and in places hard to grasp. The text is not, strictly speaking, friendly to the undergrad; if one were coming in with little anthropological background, I could see where it might be hard to read. But the diagrams and tables were excellent, and very comprehensible.
If anything, Conroy is just too much information; I'd have preferred to break it up over two semesters- there's so much in there it is difficult to really cover everything in a few months.
I preferred the Relethford book, and I think it helped me to understand some of the more technical material in Conroy. Relethford would be particularly useful for students without strong previous exposure to genetics. Alas, Relethford's is a very pricey book, and a little bit old.
Hello, love the blog, I
Hello, love the blog, I admire the graphics too, nice and crisp.
When you said about human
When you said about human evolution i just remembered my school days of the history classes i had. Good image.....keep it up. i too would like to view the best practices in human evolution.
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