A new curriculum for Introduction to Biological Anthropology

A naturalist’s approach in the molecular age

[Update June 11, 2014: Here's how far this project has come.]

Brief Description

This is a curriculum that teaches introductory human origins and evolution the same way that humankind came to understand it-- from a naturalist’s perspective. This framework has historically worked quite well (witness Charles Darwin), yet it’s foreign to many undergraduate students who feel removed from nature. 

Background and Rationale

This spring 2012 semester marks about the 12^th time that I’ve taught Introduction to Biological Anthropology (which is called APG 201: Human Origins where I am now).

For my first stint, I did my best to ape Jeffrey Kurland’s Penn State course because I had TA’d for him in grad school and he was phenomenal. This also means that I ripped-off various activities that TAs had developed and contributed to the curriculum over the years. I was also heavily influenced by Susan Anton’s late 90s version that I experienced while an undergraduate at UF.   But ever since then my course has gradually developed its own distinct flavor and I’m now at the point where it looks so different from its ancestors that even Milford Wolpoff might consider it a separate species. (To the uninitiated, welcome to bioanth humor.)

The changes I’ve made are due in no small part to new findings in genetics, primatology, paleontology, biology, forensics, archaeology, etc. that constantly accumulate. 

But mostly I’ll blame the changes I’ve made on a complete shift in pedagogical perspective thanks to finally identifying my two biggest teaching goals:

(1) Students should get as strong a handle on evolution as possible, shedding as many misconceptions as possible, so that they can best comprehend the biological, ecological, and cultural significance of human variation and evolution.

(2)  Students should achieve as much of this evolutionary understanding on their own as possible, by thinking creatively, synthetically, and critically about the evidence.

Number one means that I probably take more time with evolutionary theory  than most of my colleagues. But because this course is the only college-level exposure to evolution (let alone biology) that many undergraduates have, it’s important that it's strong. Once they’re out your door, they’re consuming, producing, and voting based in no small part on their understanding of their place in nature and their (and others') place in the human species. This one chance that we get to represent evolutionary theory and human ecology and biology is crucial make-or-break time for us biological anthropology professors.

Number two means that I have to deviate pretty far from the conventional format for this course, which plays out exactly the same way in all the textbooks. 

Here's why. My best guess for how to get students to achieve number two is to lead them through the steps that have worked for naturalists through history. This means having students walk in Darwin’s shoes (wearing modern science's goggles and gloves, of course). A lot of evolutionary evidence is plainly obvious if you just look around and read up on things like Darwin did. No need for fancy protein-coding machinery that students would be lucky to use if they got into the right grad school, let alone if they go work in a cubicle after graduation. What’s more, a lot of the biology and ecology (variation, heredity, inter-connectedness of all things) that was once obvious to so many people because they grew their own food in their backyard is now far from obvious to students who only grow their waistlines at Taco Bell.  I want students to see it for themselves because, while it engages them in higher level thinking, it is just so satisfying to discover things about the world. Why take that pleasure away from students?

Unfortunately, that's what all the mainstream textbooks in introductory biological anthropology do. Every single one begins the course by spoon-feeding the students evolutionary theory and smacking them in the face with molecular and cellular processes, hardly any of which have been specifically identified to be causally linked to the locomotor, dietary, cognitive and social traits that are the foci of subsequent chapters. [See Jurmain et al. (Cengage), Boyd and Silk (WW Norton and Co.),  Park ( McGraw Hill), Larsen (WW Norton and Co), Relethford (McGraw Will), Stanford et al. (Pearson)] 

For the most part, the popular textbooks present the material as a tour of what biological anthropologists do. But why do this to hundreds of students a year who aren't going to be biological anthropologists? Those students are, however, going to continue to be humans. So while the content is very important, it's just the presentation that's off.

Frontloading the course with complex theory and molecular concepts before making any comparative observations or discussing any of the evidence for human evolution is simply backwards. It also leaves some students feeling like they’re just memorizing factoids with little hope as to how to bring them all together to answer larger questions about where we come from and why we vary. And this method also creates the potential for students to believe evolution merely because someone with authority said it is so. But, by definition, evolutionary theory does not require dogma to endure. Anyone can see for themselves the evidence for human evolution all around them. This is what my approach encourages. (For more, see my last post on pedagogy here.) 

A New Curriculum

For my curriculum to work, it means that I assign readings out of order of the textbook.  So, to start the course, students are reading up on comparative anatomy and behavior from the middle and sometimes end of the textbook.  This is far from ideal considering these textbooks are written to progressively build upon previous knowledge. Having students read chapters out of order can be confusing, but it’s the only way to do it. (That is, until I write my own book (heh) or until enough resources that I can piece together become available like, for example, this draft list.)

In my reorganized curriculum we ask a chain of questions that progress in a logical manner and that foster a natural sequence of discovery. Here’s the unit-by-unit breakdown.

Unit 1. What is the scientific approach to understanding human origins? Provides perspective for the rest of the curriculum and provides essential tools for interpreting and evaluating evidence and understanding the science of human origins and evolution.

Units 2 & 3. What is a human and what are human traits? Students compare and contrast human biology and behavior with other organisms and learn how observations of living organisms support their evolution from common ancestors over deep time.

Units 4 & 5. How did human traits evolve? Theories and principles used to explain the evolutionary processes responsible for the observations made above. Students decide how evolutionary hypotheses can be tested and they make predictions for what is contained in the fossil, archaeological, and genetic records. Molecular evidence is evaluated here; fossil and archaeological evidence comes later.

Unit 6. Why did our ancestors diverge from those of other animals? Evaluate hypotheses for human-chimpanzee divergence. Testing evolutionary hypotheses in the fossil and genetic records.

Unit 7. When did our ancestors diverge from those of other animals? The importance of context. Geological dating methods. Molecular clocks.

Unit 8. How were early hominins similar to and different from apes? Testing evolutionary hypotheses in the fossil, archaeological, and genetic records.

Unit 9. When did early hominins start behaving like us? Testing evolutionary hypotheses in the fossil, archaeological, and genetic records.

Unit 10.  When and where did the first humans live and how did they disperse around the globe? Testing evolutionary hypotheses in the fossil, archaeological, and genetic records.

Unit 11. How and why do humans vary? Explaining human variation with and without evolutionary forces. Understanding race.

Unit 12. Why is human evolution misunderstood and why is it controversial? Facing denial and misconceptions and their dangers.

Unit 13. Are we still evolving? From this newly acquired, informed perspective we consider the evolutionary sciences and their role in our lives today. We also consider our place in nature today and in the future.

(c) Holly Dunsworth
Note: I know it's a blog, but this is where I chose to publish. That means, if you use this then find a way to cite it, please. Thanks and welcome to the future!