September 12, 2011

What does it mean to be a human being?

Objective:

• Be able to identify the importance of the discovery of “LUCY”

• Be able to identify where “LUCY” was found

• Be able to identify what makes “LUCY” human in the eyes of scientists

Homework:

• Short answer question:

• Was Lucy / Dignesh really a human?

• Take a stand and say why you think what you think

Vocabulary:

• Human

• A species that we belong to

• A type of primate that walks upright

• Acting according to moral values

Olduvai Gorge

•Located in Africa

•East side of Africa

•Tanzania

Olduvai Gorge

Lucy / Dignesh

•Found in Olduvai Gorge in 1973

•Scientifically the first Human

•Lived 3.2 Million years ago

Why LUCY / Dignesh?

• The Europeans working on the dig where the fossil was discovered named the fossil Lucy

• The Africans working on the dig named the fossil Dignesh

• Dignesh means “You are beautiful” in the local language, called Amharic

How do they know Dignesh is that old?

• Carbon dating

• A form of Carbon called Carbon14 changes into Nitrogen 14 at a fixed rate

• The cycle starts when the object dies

Why do scientists call Dignesh the first human?

• Dignesh provides the earliest evidence that a primate walked only on 2 legs

• This means it had arms and hands to hold things

• Is this enough of a reason to call Dignesh human? Science says yes

Why do scientists think Dignesh walked on two legs?

• Fossil footprints

• The foot would not make a mark if the weight was not focused straight down

• An ape could not have made this mark

• This print was made in mud that turned to rock

HISTORICAL TWEETS!

• In case you are not familiar with Twitter, it is an online service that allows you send messages to people who subscribe to you. Many celebrities and athletes communicate with their fans in this manner.

HISTORICAL TWEETS!

• The messages are known as tweets. They have a limit of 140 characters – letters, symbols and punctuation marks. For purposes of this assignment, we will take the limit to be 140 letters, not symbols or punctuation.

HISTORICAL TWEETS!

•You may use common text message abbreviations, but remember, they must be readable by your average teacher. (Like me)

HISTORICAL TWEETS!

• What goes in the tweet? What is important! Imagine you are at Olduvai Gorge, and you are sending a Tweet to announce the discovery of Dignesh. What would you write in the tweet?

HISTORICAL TWEETS!

• Who are you?

• What was discovered?

• When was it discovered?

• Where was it discovered?

• Why is it important?

Class work:

• Write the tweet

• If you finish you may do a bumpersticker promoting the use of the name Dignesh over Lucy

• You may also choose to say you prefer Lucy as a name for the fossil

Exit Ticket:

• The tweet will be your exit ticket

• If you complete the tweet you have demonstrated you know what is important about Dignesh