The Human Spark

Special Collection

What makes us uniquely human? In a three-part series originally broadcast on PBS in January 2010, Alan Alda takes this question personally, visiting with dozens of scientists on three continents, and participating directly in many experiments – including the detailed examination of his own brain.Through this collection of lesson plans and video resources, students join Alda in searching for the answer to this question. In the process, they explore human evolution, prehistory, child development, the human brain, and more.

Major funding for The Human Spark is provided by the National Science Foundation, and by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Additional funding is provided by the John Templeton Foundation, the Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, and The Winston Foundation.

RESOURCE	GRADE LEVEL	MEDIA TYPE
The Art Spark In this video segment from The Human Spark, host Alan Alda journeys to France to view some of the earliest and most dramatic evidence of prehistoric human sophistication.	9-12	Video
Being Human Using segments from the PBS program The Human Spark, students explore the question “What makes us human?”	5-8	Lesson Plan
Beyond the Present This video from The Human Spark provides a look at humans' unique ability to reflect upon events that have happened in the past and think about things that could possibly happen in the future.	5-12	Video
The Brain in Action This video segment from The Human Spark observes the brains responses to a series of cognitive tests.	9-12	Video
Chimp Politics In this video from the PBS series The Human Spark, host Alan Alda and scientist Franz de Waal observe and compare two alpha-male chimpanzees’ different approaches to sharing at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta.	9-12	Video
The Community of Symbolism In this video segment from The Human Spark, host Alan Alda discovers how the creation and wearing of jewelry by early humans started the change in social organizations that allowed Neanderthals to be replaced by modern humans.	9-12	Video
Cooperation Over Competition In this video from The Human Spark, scientists discuss what may be the uniquely “human spark” which separates us from animals: our ability to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate with others.	9-12	Video
A Day in the Life of a Neanderthal In this video segment from The Human Spark, host Alan Alda looks at some of the similarities and differences between the Neanderthal way of life and that of modern humans.	9-12	Video
The Developing Brain This video from The Human Spark illustrates the difference between the brain growth of man’s early ancestors and today’s modern infant.	9-12	Video
The Developing Child Students explore the stages of development children experience from birth the age five including brain growth, language development and what shapes their views on right and wrong.	9-12	Lesson Plan
Digging for the Truth In this lesson, students will use videos from The Human Spark to learn how archeologists discover and examine physical evidence and use it to formulate theories explaining how and why humans were able to advance beyond our now-extinct cousins the Neanderthals.	9-12	Lesson Plan
Experimenting with Experiments Using segments from The Human Spark, students learn how to design and critique experiments with living subjects.	5-8	Lesson Plan
Freak-Genomics In this lesson students will enter the world of the genome, learning about human history and evolution by using video segments from The Human Spark.	9-12	Lesson Plan
The Garbage of Everyday Life Host Alan Alda visits Abri Castanet — a collapsed Rock Shelter which housed the Neanderthals and early humans in this video segment from The Human Spark.	9-12	Video
How We Learn In this segment from The Human Spark, host Alan Alda observes experiments at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology which demonstrate how differently human children and orangutans learn how to complete tasks.	9-12	Video
Human Nature This video segment from The Human Spark looks at the ways in which monkeys and apes are similar to humans, not just biologically but mentally and socially.	5-12	Video
Humans vs. Chimps This video segment from The Human Spark takes a look at experiments which compare the abilities and reactions of human children and chimps.	5-12	Video
Human vs. Chimp Thinking This video segment from The Human Spark features a discussion about how human thought differs from that of chimpanzees.	5-12	Video
If It Ain't Broke Archaeologist John Shea explains the context and construction of one of the early humans' first tools--the stone hand ax.	9-12	Video
Insight and Imagination Get an overview of how insight and imagination distinguish humans from others in this segment from The Human Spark.	5-12	Video
Introduction to Evolution: How Did We Get Here? In this lesson, students will use videos from The Human Spark to learn about Darwin’s theory of evolution and how it applies to human development throughout earth’s history.	6-8	Lesson Plan
Journey Into the Brain Using segments from the PBS program The Human Spark, students learn about the human brain, including information about brain regions, brain activity and technologies used to explore brain activity.	9-12	Lesson Plan
Language Development On his journey to discover the human spark, Alan Alda speaks with Dr. Elizabeth Spelke from Harvard University and Professor Neville from the University of Oregon about the development of language in this video from The Human Spark.	9-12	Video
The Language Spark In this lesson, students use selected videos from the PBS series The Human Spark to explore how the capacity for language develops in the human brain, and about how that capacity distinguishes us from other animals.	9-12	Lesson Plan
Learning Right and Wrong Through scientific research, this video from The Human Spark illustrates how a child’s views of what is right and wrong can be shaped by others.	9-12	Video
Life As We Know It Using video segments from The Human Spark, students will explore how life on Earth began in this lesson on evolution.	9-12	Lesson Plan
Links in the Evolutionary Chain In this segment, Alan Alda, host of The Human Spark, explores some of the characteristics that distinguish different branches of the hominid “family tree,” such as brain and face size, ability to make tools, and location..	5-12	Video
A Matter of Size Learn about the brains of a rat, monkey, chimp, and human and why some brains are bigger than others in this video from The Human Spark.	5-12	Video
Modern Family In this lesson based on the PBS program The Human Spark, students learn about an important yet extinct branch of the human family tree – the Neanderthals.	9-12	Lesson Plan
Monkey See, Monkey Do Through experimentation, scientists at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta demonstrate how chimps faithfully transmit learned behaviors from one chimp to another.	9-12	Video
Monkey See, Monkey Take In this video segment from The Human Spark, an experiment is done that indicates monkeys have a working notion of other minds.	5-12	Video
The Neanderthal Way In this segment from The Human Spark, host Alan Alda travels to a cave where archaeologists are engaged in one of their most fundamental activities: excavation.	9-12	Video
Ratty Old Genes This video from The Human Spark explores the extraction and interpretation of Neanderthal DNA.	9-12	Video
Scanning the Brain In this video from The Human Spark, host Alan Alda learns how Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines employ powerful magnetic fields to show what parts of the brain are active while doing different tasks.	9-12	Video
Social Advantages This video segment from The Human Spark provides an explanation of the evolutionary advantage of human social organization.	9-12	Video
A Social Network Alan Alda explores the relationship between social and technological change, specifically in Neanderthal and modern human populations in this video from The Human Spark.	9-12	Video
Social Skills Students think about the building blocks of human society and investigate how different or similar they are to behaviors found in the animal world.	9-12	Lesson Plan
Sticks and Stones: Prehistory Technology Students learn about the construction and context of some prehistoric tools which allowed early humans to survive and thrive.	9-12	Lesson Plan
Talk of Life Using the FOXP2 “language gene” as an example, this video from The Human Spark explores how similar genes evolve differently in different animals.	9-12	Video
Thinking About Thinking This video from The Human Spark features a discussion about the ability of humans to think about others' thoughts.	5-12	Video
To Make a Spear About 100,000 years ago, humans began to develop the spear, representing the beginnings of projective technology and organized hunting.	9-12	Video
What's the Difference? This video segment from The Human Spark discusses how certain aspects of Neanderthals’ diet and development set them apart from modern humans.	9-12	Video
What Teeth Can Tell This segment from The Human Spark shows how modern technology is used to compare the maturity rate of human children with that of Neanderthal children.	9-12	Video

Major funding for Teachers' Domain was provided by the National Science Foundation.

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