The Human Evolution Teaching Materials Project

Abstract

The Human Evolution Teaching Materials Project (HETMP) was created to facilitate the inclusion of human evolution into existing middle school and high school curricula. HETMP utilizes open‐access 3D surface files of hominin crania, along with a variety of teaching materials, to reinforce a student's understanding of evolutionary processes through the analysis of hominin cranial morphology. It has been piloted in five middle school and high school classrooms during the period 2017–2018. Through a free and easy‐to‐use website, teachers have access to all of these materials as well as constant support in order to help facilitate the implementation of these materials into existing course content. The available teaching modules reference a variety of open source 3D models including: Pan troglodytes, Australopithecus africanus, A. afarensis, A. sediba, Paranthropus aethiopicus, P. boisei, Homo naledi, H. erectus, H. rudolfensis, H. habilis, H. heidelbergensis, H. sapiens, and H. neanderthalensis. These models can be printed by the school or by using a local 3D printer, or can be borrowed from a previously established set of crania. This program not only highlights the importance of keeping academic research open‐source, but also has a direct impact on evolution awareness in hundreds of middle and high school students. Teachers at the pilot schools noted increased student engagement and students have enjoyed learning about human evolution in a way that was previously not made available to them. Undoubtedly, HETMP has the potential to impact thousands of pre‐college students by demonstrating the tangible evidence of evolution and allowing middle school and high school students to learn about cranial morphology through hands‐on experiential learning.Support or Funding InformationThis project is supported by the Society for the Study of Evolution.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.