Hi all!
First a book announcement...
Jerry DeSilva's vision and hard work is now published, and it is great. It's called "A Most Interesting Problem: What Darwin's Descent of Man got right and wrong about human evolution."
Check out the list of authors! Check out this positive review by Erika Milam in Science.
**
Today begins another semester of on-line college, for me, my colleagues and my students. I've got four different courses, all online. If the students can handle a load like that, then I hope I can too. I'll have to. It's my job to handle it. It's just so daunting. Oh well! Onward.
Here's some insight into undergraduate brains right now. I ask students in my intro course to draw what they'd draw on their cave wall. Guess what drawings are common? "Tiktok," “BLM,” surgical masks, syringes, coronavirus, soap and sanitizer pumpers, handwashing, aliens, and mobile phones.
Normally I'd be posting my latest syllabus for that text-book free intro biological anthropology course APG 201 HUMAN ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION, but, like with the Fall 2020 course, it's not so easy anymore. Because it's all on-line, I no longer have a long list of the readings (3-5 chaps in Roberts or online articles per week; with this non-required resource always available) and the assignments (3-5 per week) and the videos I have them watch in one file that I can just paste here. They're all posted/pasted into separate course modules on my course site where students "take" the class and watch my lectures. It's so much prettier and more user-friendly the way it is now, and will be when we're back to in-person classes too, but it's not at all easy to export and share. So I'm not. I've pasted the text of my syllabus below.
I’ve been posting about how I teach Intro BioAnth/Human Origins and Evolution here on our blog for many years and, thanks to your feedback, I know that it’s useful. It’s so useful that people want more than what I post here. They want my handouts and my lecture slides. That’s not going to happen. Sorry! But just getting the stuff that I've spent years and years writing doesn’t come automatically with pedagogy. But one way you can experience/see my pedagogy *and* get all my materials (handouts, slides, etc) is to take my course.
That, perhaps, strange idea occurred to me now that it's possible to suggest it, thanks to having to put my course online due to the pandemic. No way are all my recorded lectures humdingers. So what. It still gets the point, the strategy, etc across. And it does it so well. I could share with you my overwhelmingly enthusiastic student feedback and their marvelous Books of Origins, but that would be outrageous. Sure, they love it because they’re graded mostly for completion rather than accuracy and so there are more As in my course than I’m sure there are in many other intro human evolution courses around the world. But, so what? This is our species' shared origin story; ramming it home with high-stakes exams does not make any sense to me, not at the intro level. All humans share this one story and so all humans deserve to learn about it by making meaning out of it.
I welcome colleagues (and all students, of course) to take my course, APG 201 Human Origins and Evolution, this summer. It's fully on-line and asynchronous and you can take it from anywhere! It would cost up to $1332 of professional development funds, if those things are, perhaps, available to you. I will also happily be available as a colleague, off to the side, as well. I'd love it. Here's the information about summer courses at The University of Rhode Island. APG 201 is not yet posted. https://web.uri.edu/summer/
Here's my syllabus without readings/viewings and assignments (except the weekly group post) because, like I said above, they're all on-line in my course site now and I don't have them in a file to easily paste into here.
Spring 2021 – Fully on-line and asynchronous
Will be
largely the same for Summer 1 and 2, 2021
APG 201
(3 credits)
Human
Origins and Evolution
Professor
Holly Dunsworth
Course description
The biocultural evolution of humans. An
investigation into humankind’s place in nature, including a review of the
living primates, human genetics and development, evolutionary theory, and the
human fossil record. Fulfills both the General Education outcomes A1 (STEM
knowledge) and C3 (Diversity and Inclusion)
This is a course about how you evolved. This is your
origin story (at least, one of them). To write it, we will learn from
biological and evolutionary anthropologists who study human and nonhuman
primate biology, behavior, diversity, adaptation and evolution in order to
better understand the human species and explain how we arrived at our current
condition: Incessantly chattering, naked, culturally dependent, big-brained,
bipedal creatures who are diverse in appearance and culture and inhabit nearly
all types of habitats on Earth. Along our journey we will ask ourselves how we
know what we know. We will also address, head-on why so much of this material
is culturally controversial. The science of human evolution and its
dissemination into the popular imagination has a long history of racism and
sexism. In this course we will address that history and the stigma it attached
to human origins by identifying bad evolutionary thinking, misconceptions, and
the many horrible misapplications of that thinking. A long tradition of making Homo sapiens the hero of human origins
and evolution, rather than each of us, all of us, is one major cause of this
problem, which is why you, not the species, is the hero of the origin story we
tell in this course. Here, we take back our species’ shared origins story and
make it one that’s fit for all humankind. When that happens, then the species will be the hero.
Required materials
1.
The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being by Alice Roberts –If you buy a physical copy, there are multiple cover
designs, don’t worry about the different cover designs because it’s all the
same book. It should be available through the URI bookstore.
2.
Moleskine Classic Collection, hardcover notebook, Ruled (or
Unruled, your choice) 5 x 8 1/4 inch (this size is required) and must have at
least 96 pages (240 pages is easiest to purchase), any color
https://www.amazon.com/Moleskine-Classic-Cover-Notebook-Ruled/dp/8883701127
APG 201
Learning Outcomes
Anthropology (B.A.) program
learning outcome (LO): Describe the historical development of anthropology and be
able to characterize how each subfield contributes to the unified discipline.
·
APG 201 LO #1: Identify human origins and
evolution as an anthropological endeavor (the integration of STEM, social
sciences, and humanities; and always within a cultural-historical context).
(also LO for A1)
Anthropology (B.A.) program
LO: Explain
biological and biocultural evolution, describe the evidence for human origins
and evolution, and evaluate both scientific debates and cultural controversies
over genetic determinism, biological race, and evolution.
·
APG 201 LO #2: Recognize scientific
debates about how present, physical evidence is interpreted to support or refute
hypotheses for particular events in, or aspects of, human evolution. (also LO
for A1)
Anthropology (B.A.) program
LO: Compare
past and present cultures, including ecological adaptations, social
organization, and belief systems, using a holistic, cross-cultural,
relativistic, and scientific approach.
·
APG 201 LO #3: Recognize and explain how
scientists look to nonhuman species, contemporary human biology, and the fossil
and archaeological records to reconstruct the origins and evolution of
present-day biological variation, and the development of upright locomotion,
language and speech, material cultures, and forms of social organization. (also
LO for A1)
Anthropology (B.A.) program
LO: Explain
quantitative and qualitative methods in the analysis of anthropological data
and critically evaluate the logic of anthropological research.
·
APG 201 LO #4: Summarize the sociocultural
controversies associated with human evolution, rooted in historical tradition,
bias, and prejudice, or rooted in misinformation based on outdated or incorrect
claims from scientists. (also LO for A1 & C3)
Anthropology (B.A.) program
LO: Apply
anthropological research to contemporary environmental, social, or health
issues worldwide.
·
APG 201 LO #5: Differentiate between the
variation caused by human evolution and the inequity caused by biased and
incorrect beliefs about human evolution. Based on that distinction, students
will evaluate and critique evolution-based claims for the biological reality of
“race” and “gender.” From there, students will explain and argue for the
sociocultural construction of “race” and “gender." (also LO for A1
&C3)
·
APG 201 LO #6: (specific to C3) Apply knowledge of effective problem
solving or conflict resolution skills related to diversity and inclusion in
order to respond to real-life situations. Choose and use appropriate
communication styles to engage in difficult dialogues related to diversity and
inclusion.
Grade Scale: A = 93.5 – 110%; A- = 89.5 – 93.4%; B+ =
87.5 – 89.4%; B = 83.5 – 87.4%; B- = 79.5 – 83.4%; C+ = 77.5 – 79.4%; C = 73.5
– 77.4%; C- = 69.5 – 73.4%; D+ = 67.5 – 69.4%; D = 59.5 – 67.4%; F = below
59.5%
ASSESSMENT
Group work online 15%
Quiz 1 10%
Quiz 2 10%
Quiz 3 15%
Book of Origins
50%
Total 100
(or 110% with extra credit)
Group work online (15%)
We
all share a course Google Doc, where each of you will contribute to one prompt
for each module. Professor Dunsworth will provide feedback there, as well. All
points are earned for answering the prompt. Because this is a practice space,
errors (unless enormous and way out of bounds) will not cause you to lose the
point for completing the response. If
you complete all 14 assignment on the google doc, then you get a bonus point
for excellence and earn 15/15.
Quizzes 1, 2, and 3 (10 + 10
+ 15 = 35%)
For all three quizzes, students are free to consult course resources
and each other (as long as it’s reciprocal and not parasitic, okay? But if any
written answers are similar, that is plagiarism and all hell breaks loose.) This
is the only aspect of the course where complete accuracy is required. Quizzes
will consist of multiple-choice, short answer, and essay. All students will be
notified when each quiz becomes available on Brightspace, at least one day
ahead of the due date.
Book
of Origins (50%) – QUESTIONS? Prof Dunsworth is here
to help! Just contact her!
These instructions are long
and detailed to maximize excellence. I have been doing this for years and years
and believe me, I have seen it all. The only thing that you can do to lose
points is to submit incomplete or incoherent work; the vast majority of these
instructions are guidelines that you should follow if at all possible, but that
will not cost you points. I hope to maximize excellence, and so without further
ado…
· This semester-long project takes
place in your moleskine and it is for you, not for Professor Dunsworth.
· Your
Book of Origins is your creation and the content includes your
assignments and any additional information from the course or related to the
course that you find to be meaningful during this semester and that you’d like
to record in it. You will write this Book of Origins over the course of
the semester and submit it, digitally, at the end for a grade. But again, you are writing this for
yourself, not for Professor Dunsworth.
· Your
Book of Origins is not
your course notebook. While you are encouraged to include meaningful things
from the notes you take on lectures, etc and from handouts and other course
materials, there are simply not enough pages for your Book of Origins to be
your course notebook too. You will need a separate notebook for jotting down
notes and for organizing whatever you might print out.
· Grading
is based mostly on whether you completed the assignments thoughtfully and
professionally, not whether you completed them entirely correctly. In other
words, you earn full credit for each assignment by putting forth the effort to
complete it—as long as it’s a solid effort, earnestly attempts to answer the
questions that are asked, and fills at least one side of
one page! I grade
this way because these assignments are often struggles that I’m asking you to
face on your own ahead of addressing these topics in the course. Errors in the assignments are therefore
tolerated but egregious inaccuracies are not (e.g. irrelevant or nonsensical
material). Your book’s overall grade will be based on completion of
assignments, effort, clarity/legibility, organization, and integration into the
moleskine as a cohesive book (in which you are encouraged to curate materials
beyond what is assigned, like highlights or quotes from the videos you watched
in the course, etc). The overall grade takes into consideration how thoughtful
you are in creating your book. Though, if assignments are all clearly
complete, then that is enough to earn 100% for the Book of Origins.
1.
Clearly write your name and contact information inside the
front cover.
2.
If possible, write or affix the title of your book on the
binding, like books do.
3. If
you wish, write or affix a cover on the front.
4. Leave
the first four pages blank. This is where you will affix the Table of Contents (TOC). The TOC is a
file in START HERE that you must either print and affix inside your book or (if
you don’t have a printer) fill out and email to me. Knowing both what you did
and what you didn’t complete is crucial to the assessment process at the end of
the semester, which is why I need you to fill out the Table of Contents that I
created and posted in the Start Here module on BS, and, even better, print and
affix inside (but I don’t even have a printer at home so I don’t assume or
require anyone else to.) You can do this at the very end of the course just
before you turn in the book for a grade.
5. Number
your pages as you go, front and back, like books do.
6.
Start every assignment on a
new page. (Do not start any assignments on pages where there
is already an assignment.)
7.
If your ink is bleeding
through the paper, then simply do not write on both sides of the page. Either leave the backs of pages blank (you have plenty of space to do
that) or use another writing/drawing implement that does not bleed through.
Bleeding is fine! Just not when students use those pages.
8. If
you wish, work only on the front page of each page; leave the backs of
the pages blank (but still number them). There is plenty of room for this. This
makes the book neater and clearer (especially when ink bleeds through), but it
also leaves blank space for you to return to old work, at any time in the
semester, and add comments or updates.
9. Number
your assignments with the numbers that are attached to them in Brightspace
(e.g. 1.1, 1.2, …) so that you can eventually make a table of contents.
Assignments are choreographed readings and activities, timed to maximize your
engagement with the rest of the course material and your mastery of it. Some
will ask you to respond to a reading with words or drawings. Others will
involve watching films or performing interactive activities on-line. Still
others guide you to perform specific exercises in preparation for learning more
in the course. If at all possible, like, unless something dreadful is happening
to you, do the assignments in the order I have
provided, chronologically. You do not want to be skipping to
the end of each module and writing the last assignment if you have not prepared
by doing all the prior assignments for that module yet. That’s just not good
scholarship. But if you must do any assignments out of order, then they may be
out of order in the book. If they are, no problem: The Table of Contents will
sort that out.
10. If
the assignment asks you to write something, you must write in your own words.
If you want to include quotes in your Book of Origins, please do, but your
assignment must be more your words than quotes of
others’. If there are tons of quotes
that you want to record, go ahead, this is your book and that is highly
encouraged, but they won’t count as an assignment.
11. You
need to fill at least one side of one page, minimum, for each assignment
to get full credit for its completion. Write in sentences strung together in
prose. Bullet-pointed notes do not count as a
completed writing assignment. You may include those kinds
of notes in addition to your assignments (and you are encouraged if you value
them, understandably), but that is not the method you may use to complete an
assignment. This is writing! Write! If you choose to draw to complete an
assignment, you still need to write even just a complete sentence to explain
what it is that you drew and why.
12. If
your handwriting is illegible, or if you just prefer to type, you can type up your assignments, print them, cut them out,
and paste them into your book. You can used mixed methods too,
typing some and handwriting others, or parts of others. You can also draw on
other paper, cut it out, and paste it onto the moleskine page. No matter how
you do it, you need to fill one page, minimum to complete the assignment.
13. If you choose to draw more
than write, you still need to convey the significance of the
drawing by writing, even a sentence. You cannot simply draw some
genitalia, for example, and then move on to the next assignment. Those
genitalia need an explanation! What are those genitalia doing there on that
page of your Book of Origins? Make everything you enter
into your moleskine part of your Book of Origins by giving it context for the
reader (who is future you, and anyone you may share it
with). Which brings me to this VERY
IMPORTANT point:
14. Each
assignment must be comprehensible to a total stranger who isn’t part of
this course and who has no idea what has been assigned. This is a book, after
all, not merely a compendium of homework. Help your future self (who may feel
like a total stranger) out by writing and including context
for your work on each page. For some of you this will mean transcribing
the assignment/prompt into your books while for others it may mean you simply
write a bit of an introduction, even just a sentence, to orient the reader. Sometimes
a great short title scrawled on the page is all you need to do the trick.
15.
If you have not read/viewed
the assigned material, then do not write or draw anything for an assignment. That is a waste of time and
is dishonest to yourself to boot. Books
that are created without doing the work of learning are obvious and will earn
zero points, total, even if just one assignment is faked like that.
16. When
you’re all done, fill out the TOC and affix it inside the front pages of the
book or fill it out digitally and submit it separately.
17. Your
Book of Origins (complete with completed TOC) is
due by Tuesday April 30, 11:59 pm.
18. Submission … how? In normal semesters, students
submit their actual physical books to but because of the pandemic, you must
take pictures of each page and create one google doc or slideshow to “share”
(via google apps) your book with me. Do not send me a folder with a bunch of
photo files that I have to click through separately. Share one file that contains
all the images, in chronological order. On any day except the due date, I’m
happy to help you do this if you just ask 😊.
Extra credit (up to 10%) – Accepted any time up to April 30, 11:59 pm.
Living humans are not models of our ancient
ancestors. However, there are ways that people move their bodies around the
world that probably do better approximate some of our ancestors’ behaviors
compared to ours. When it comes to moving around in a day, people like the
Hadza of Tanzania, who forage for their food, range further on their feet than
people who visit grocery stores. Hadza adults typically travel 6 miles/day,
minimum, many go much farther. Since this course is about our evolution from
foraging ancestors but also our evolution into upright walking and running
apes, one way to earn extra credit is to go the distance, on your feet. If you walk,
run, or combine the two for at least 3 miles a day, on average, over the course
of 7 consecutive days (or if you do the equivalent, which is to travel a total
of at least 21 miles or 52,000 steps over a week), then you earn 5% points
extra credit added to your total course grade.
There are myriad ways to demonstrate your accomplishment of this feat to
Prof. Dunsworth, by zooming and showing your phone or other device, by
screenshotting your app, by showing Prof. Dunsworth a measured digital or paper
map of your travels. (However you demonstrate your success, I will believe
you.) If you complete that “half Hadza way” challenge, then you unlock the
opportunity to attempt the “whole Hadza way” challenge for an additional 5%,
which is doubling it—traveling at least 6 miles/day on foot for 7
consecutive days, or a total of 42 miles (or 104,000 steps) over a week.
For students who do not opt to do the physical extra credit challenge, there is a scholarly one. It’s called “Thanks, Evolution!” and the details are posted separately on Brightspace. Students who take on this challenge write an evolutionary origin story for something that they like about life on Earth (cheese, dogs, laughter, etc…). It’s a short research paper and earns 10% if done excellently, less if not, but most points are for completion. Students may only do the walk/run option or the research paper option, not both.
Weekly/module schedule
|
1 In the beginning: Anthropology, Science |
|
2 You are a primate: Primate characteristics and diversity |
|
3 Are you an ape?: Evolution, tree-thinking |
|
4 You have strange ancestors: Speciation, Fossils |
|
5 The unbroken thread + sex + gestation made the fetal version
of you: Origins of sex, eggs and sperm, DNA, genes |
|
6 You evolved (Mutation, Hox genes, Gene flow, Natural
Selection, Genetic Drift) |
|
7 Evolution is science and stories: The LCA, Skin Color
Variation, Malaria Resistance, Building Evolutionary Scenarios |
|
8 When you were very young: Birth, Milk, Walking |
|
9 Your big hot hungry brain: Tools, technology, running,
throwing, evolution of meat-eating |
|
10 You reason, abstractly, therefore you are. Language helps:
Talking, Socializing, Art, Imagination, Extreme Cooperation |
|
11 What are you? What is a human? Human origins, dispersal, and impact |
|
12 They baked racism and sexism into our shared origins story:
Let’s take it out |
|
13 Rewriting our shared origins story so it's fit for all
humankind |
|
14 You are a wise, reflective creature who is always evolving.
And you are a storytelling ape: Looking back and ahead (Triumph) |
APG 201 Human Origins and Evolution
Group Google Doc
At the end of each
module on Brightspace, you’re directed to come here and answer a prompt. Posts
are due by the end of the day Friday each week, but I will not grade until at
least the following Monday, so you have the weekend to post if you didn’t make
the suggested deadline on Friday.
Instructions
Before you post here
- Do the work in the week’s module, first. Those videos
and assignments are choreographed to lead you here so that you can be
informed by the time you engage with your classmates. If your post does
not address the prompt or betrays ignorance of the module’s content, then
it gets no credit. If you post after I grade that module (which is
signaled by my comments on the posts that are there), then your post gets
no credit.
- Write and post your response to the prompt for the
module before reading anyone else’s. That’s the best way to maximize your
own thinking. You wouldn’t show up to soccer practice and just sit there
because your teammate got there first and is already doing the drills.
Write as briefly as you’d like in response to the questions. Brief can
still be excellent.
- Read through the previous posts from the previous
module and my comments on them.
As you post here...
- Label your response to the prompt with your first and
last name, please. Just type away under the prompt or under a classmate’s
post.
- You are welcome to respond to your classmate’s posts
using the comment tool that shows up in the margin. Please feel free to do
this but it is not required.
- Do not “resolve” (do not click the blue check on) any
of my comments because that erases them. This will be hard to abide for
people who are embarrassed by my feedback (it’s my experience that
critiques get “resolved” by students more than praise does). But because my
comments are for everyone’s learning, not just yours, you must leave
them.
- Make sure to enter your response to the prompt into
your Book of Origins as that module’s last assignment. Fill the page with
writing and/or drawing, just like all other assignments. Do this
immediately because throughout the semester, I remove old modules’
material to stop the document from growing too long.
Module 1
Getting to know your
classmates and your inner anthropologist
If you had
to choose one observation from assignment 1.2 to study (try to explain) in real
life, which would it be and why? Before you took this class, what did you know
about anthropology and how did you know it? Do you expect any of that to change
as a result of this class? If so, hypothesize/predict in an explanatory way (or
explain in a predictive way) what those changes might be or why they may occur.
Module 2
The best ape
Which
nonhuman ape is the best ape? Make a case for one ape being the best ape. Offer
a plausible explanation (hypothesis) for why your professor asked you this
question. Do you agree or disagree with your classmates about which is the best
ape? Why or why not?
Module 3
Are humans apes?
Every group
member must provide an answer on the side of no we are not apes, and also an
answer on the side of yes we are apes. While doing so, each of you must reveal
whether you side with yes, no, or neither, and explain why that is.
Here
are some entertaining resources that may help you form both your yes and no
answers:
● The side of no, we aren't:
Are we apes? No, we are
humans
You Are Not an Ape! Jon Marks at TEDxEast (17 mins)
● The side of yes, we are apes:
○ Wrongheaded
anthropologist claims that humans aren’t apes
Module 4
Clearing up confusion
about our ancestry
Don’t forget to start by
writing your answer in your Book of Origins and then come here to the Google
doc and post it. That is a lot richer of an experience because you're working
it out first before seeing what others wrote. It is the best way to do every
group google doc response.
Choose
either A or B (both are not required, just one of them). Calmly and kindly
respond to a hypothetical, but agitated friend or a family member who says, (A)
“I didn’t evolve from a monkey!” or (B) “If we evolved from apes, then why are
there still apes?”
Module 5
Day off!
Type your
name and leave the briefest or longest comment about anything you'd like. Say
hi, sell an old guitar, share your favorite meme, or just say hi. Merely
leaving evidence of your presence will earn you all the credit today.
Module 6
You evolved...
What is
something important, key, surprising, new, or meaningful that you learned this
week in APG 201 and why did you choose it?
Module 7
Imagining the Future
Loss of Wisdom Teeth: Evolutionary Scenario Building
Instructions
for this week’s prompt: (1) Read this long preamble from Prof. Dunsworth, (2)
read the short blurb from a news article, then (3) answer questions A, B, and
C.
Remember…
• Most
of us were taught incorrectly or led, wrongly, to believe that ‘evolution’ =
‘natural selection’ which implies that all evolution occurs through natural
selection. This leads us to see every evolutionary scenario, all the way from
fairy tale ones to the most scientifically legitimate ones, as natural
selection. This is, of course, not a correct understanding of evolution.
•
Natural selection can result in new adaptations or in the elimination of bad
traits. The former is “positive” selection, the latter is “negative” and is
always occurring no matter what. Positive selection does happen but is not easy
to test, since natural selection occurs via differential reproductive success,
but “survival of the luckiest” alleles via genetic drift can look exactly the
same by increasing and decreasing allele frequencies just by chance. The
difference between the two is that, in a selection scenario, the trait that’s
evolving is causing the differential reproduction (whether enhancing or
inhibiting, even if ever so slightly affecting it slowly over time), but in a
genetic drift scenario the trait is randomly “drifting” (like on the surface of
the ocean) to lower or higher frequencies merely due to chance (unlinked to the
trait in question) effects on differential reproduction and chance passing of
one allele or the other to offspring. Like selection, drift can completely fix or
completely eliminate traits. Genetic drift is always occurring, and so is
negative selection to some degree (filtering out mutations that prevent
survival and reproduction) and positive selection to some degree (increasing
the prevalence of mutations, new or old, that enhance survival and
reproduction).
Read this blurb, pasted below or via
the link, about a very common perception of human evolution:
Wisdom teeth might be lost as people continue to evolve: Why the modern diet may make wisdom teeth unnecessary About 25 to 35
per cent of people will never get their wisdom teeth
By: Astrid Lange Toronto Star Library, Published on Tue Jun
25 2013
"Wisdom
teeth are the third and final set of molars that most people get in their late
teens or early 20s. But not everyone does — the American Dental Association
estimates that about 25 to 35 per cent of people will never get their wisdom
teeth. Another 30 per cent will only get 1 to 3 of them. Anthropologists
believe wisdom teeth evolved due to our ancestors’ diet of coarse, rough food —
leaves, roots, nuts and meat — which required more chewing power and resulted
in excessive wear of the teeth. Since people are no longer ripping apart meat
with their teeth and the modern diet is made of softer foods, wisdom teeth have
become less useful. In fact, some experts believe we are on an evolutionary
track to losing them altogether.”
Now, each person responds to A, B,
and C… Post your responses all together, not separated under each letter. That
is, go beneath C, or beneath the person who posted already, and post your ABC.
A.
Briefly explain the evolutionary mechanism behind the evolutionary scenario for
future wisdom tooth loss that the author of the news article above alludes to.
In other words, think about what the writer is really hypothesizing for future
human evolution and rephrase their explanation, but scientifically, in terms of
all or just some of the four main mechanisms of evolution that we discussed in
class which are mutation, gene flow, genetic drift, and selection. Important!
Banned words for your scenario include: Need(s/ed/ing), want(s/ed/ing),
try(s/ed/ing), best, most and fittest.
B.
Write out an alternative scenario where selection is responsible for the loss
of wisdom teeth in our future selves. If it’s not obvious, this will be a
significantly different scenario from what the writer has imagined in the news
article and from what you wrote in response to ‘a.’ Important! Banned words for
your scenario include: Need(s/ed/ing), want(s/ed/ing), try(s/ed/ing), best,
most, and fittest.
C.
Having 0-3 (instead of all 4) wisdom teeth develop is a fairly common phenotype
out there just like the previous article/link said, and it probably includes
people in APG 201.There’s a story out there in science and in pop culture that,
because we evolved to have smaller jaws in the last six million years of
hominin evolution, natural selection is currently favoring people who don’t
form wisdom teeth at all. That is, people think that there are people who don’t
develop all four wisdom teeth because it’s adaptive not to, because our jaws
are so small and it’s a health risk to fit all those teeth in a small jaw. They
explain this pattern of human variation with natural selection (the way we
legitimately do with skin pigmentation variation) and it helps justify third
molar extraction. NOW…. (1) knowing that there’s all kinds of dental variation
in humans, deviating from what’s typical, in terms of which teeth they do or do
not develop and that’s also true for apes who have large, roomy jaws, and live
in the wild, and (2) knowing the mind-blowing information in this brief article
that you’ll at least skim now “The Prophylactic Extraction of Third Molars: A
Public Health Hazard” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1963310/ ).... WHAT’S YOUR TAKE on that just-so story about humans who naturally don’t
develop wisdom teeth? As far as evolutionary scenarios go, is it good, bad,
neutral, or otherwise? And, does it justify us getting our wisdom teeth
routinely, prophylactically removed?
Module 8
When You Were Very
Young
What is something important, key, surprising, new, or
meaningful that you learned in this module in APG 201 and why did you choose
it?
Module 9
Day off!
Type your
name and leave the briefest or longest comment about anything you'd like. Say
hi, sell an old guitar, share your favorite meme, or just say hi. Merely
leaving evidence of your presence will earn you all the credit today.
Module 10
You reason abstractly,
therefore you are human. Language helps.
In addition
to, or beyond, what you already wrote to yourself for 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3,
what is something important, key, surprising, new, or meaningful that you
learned this module in APG 201 and why did you choose it?
Module 11
What are you? What is a
human?
In addition
to, or beyond, what you already wrote to yourself for this module's assignments
in your Book of Origins, what is something important, key, surprising, new, or
meaningful that you learned this module in APG 201 and why did you choose it?
Module 12
They baked racism… into
our species’ shared origin story
Choose A or
B and respond.
A. Ancestry is not race is not human biological
variation. Distinguish all three of those phenomena in humans (ancestry, race,
and human biological variation) from one another. (For "race" you
must stick to humans. Whatever people call a "race" in other
organisms is not race in humans.) And, feel free to add "population"
to make a fourth concept/term, if you carried that from Prof. Fuentes' lecture.
Why is it important, or why does it matter, that we make these distinctions? You must cite at least one resource (below)
in your answer.
or
B. Science has a racist past (and present) and race is a
sociocultural/political construction. Use either or both of those frameworks,
or the course material in general, to support the fact that there is no “race”
without racism. You must cite at least
one resource (below) in your answer.
Resources (must cite at least one):
● Chapter 15: Ten Facts about human
variation – Marks (Human Evolutionary Biology)
https://webpages.uncc.edu/~jmarks/pubs/tenfacts.pdf (copy and paste that URL into your
browser because just clicking on it may not work)
● There’s No Scientific Basis for
Race—It's a Made-Up Label: It's been used to define and separate people for
millennia. But the concept of race is not grounded in genetics—Kolbert (NatGeo) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/race-genetics-science-africa/
● Human Races are not like dog breeds - Norton et al. (EEO) SEE GLOSSARY OF TERMS
AT THE VERY BOTTOM/END of the article
https://evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12052-019-0109-y
Module 13
Re-writing our species’
shared origin story to make it fit for all humankind
Choose one (or do both if you can't resist, but only one is
required):
1. Ripping human evolution out of the
patriarchal playbook
Consult your memory, your friends, family, or the Internet
(or all) to find an example associating evolution with sexism (like it's
associated with racism). [Remember, regardless of what your sources say, sex
differences alone are not sexist (just like skin color variation is not
racist); it's the biased interpretation of biological variation (sometimes by
inventing some differences out of thin air) and the narration of its
evolutionary history, that we're talking about here.] Offer an explanation for
this common association of human evolution and sexism and also offer a
suggestion for removing this association from our species' shared origin story.
2. Woman the Hunter
Read these articles (right click to open in new tab or
window), which discuss the same recent scientific study. What is the finding of
the study and how did they do it? What scientific and popular assumptions does
this new study challenge? Feel free to share other relevant thoughts.
● https://theconversation.com/did-prehistoric-women-hunt-new-research-suggests-so-149477
Module 14
Triumph
What about
this stage in our course or in the course material is triumphant? What is your
triumph this semester and this year? What, if anything, about your triumph is
thanks, in part, to your evolutionary history? What triumphs lie in your
future?
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