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Overview:
Until the 1960s, it was widely believed that only humans use tools (i.e., objects that can be manipulated in order to perform specific tasks). Then Jane Goodall stunned the scientific community with the discovery during her research in Tanzania that chimpanzees also make and use tools. Elizabeth Vinson Lonsdorf continues Goodall’s work with chimps today.
Over the last four decades much has been learned not only about the use of tools by primates, but by other animals as well, including birds (e.g., woodpecker finches, green herons, chickens, and crows). This lesson focuses on tool use by primates, however, examining in particular the tools chimpanzees use, and problems they would face if they were not able to do so. Students will have opportunities to create similar tools themselves, and to think critically about the differences and similarities between human and other primate tool use.
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography, biology, life science
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 1: "How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective"
Standard 14: "How human actions modify the physical environment"
Time:
Four to six hours
Materials Required:
- Computer with Internet access [Note: If Internet access is not available to students in class, use copies of the Web site materials listed below under "Related Links."]
- Blank Xpeditions outline maps of Africa and Tanzania (one copy for each student)
- Two small bowls
- Small ball: Golf, ping pong, or paddle ball
- A bottle with a 3-4" diameter, about 6" tall (A small mayonnaise bottle would work.)
- A bottle with a 2-3" diameter, about 10" tall
- Several olives or cherries
- A small rock, about 1/2 to 3/4" in diameter
- Several rolls of masking tape
- A tray displaying various small items:
- A yardstick
- A ruler
- An envelope
- Twigs of various lengths and thickness
- Pieces of wire of various lengths and thickness
- Buttons
- Several drinking straws
- Feathers
- Several bottle tops of different sizes
- Sewing thread spools
- A sponge
- A ballpoint pen that can easily be taken apart
- A pack of chewing gum
Objectives:
Students will
- discuss the work of Jane Goodall and Elizabeth Lonsdorf;
- identify on maps where Goodall and Lonsdorf have done research with chimpanzees;
- distinguish between tools which need no alteration from how they appear in nature, called "naturefacts," and those which have to be crafted, i.e., "artifacts";
- consider whether use of parts of one's own body can be considered tool use; and
- explain what is meant by "opposable thumb," and its importance to primates.
Geographic Skills:
Asking Geographic Questions
Acquiring Geographic Information
Organizing Geographic Information
Answering Geographic Questions
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
(Before the lesson begins, place a ping-pong, paddle, or golf ball under a radiator, bookcase, or low piece of furniture in the classroom, where it cannot be retrieved by hand.)
Begin by explaining that this lesson involves the use of tools—but not just ordinary tools that we buy at a hardware store, such as hammers and screwdrivers. It begins with the most important tool primates use to do a variety of tasks all day long. Pass out a few rolls of masking tape, and ask the students to tape their thumbs to the sides of their hands. Ask them to think about how hard it would be do carry out routine human activities without the use of their thumbs. Have them try to pick up a piece of paper, button their coats or zip up their jackets, use a pair of scissors, a knife and fork, or a pen or pencil. Ask them to try to pull up their socks, tie their shoelaces, or buckle their belts, without the use of their thumbs.
Point out that they have just observed one of the noteworthy characteristics of primates (including humans)—our opposable thumbs. These opposable thumbs are the handiest and most often used "tools" we all possess, and what the tape did was make it impossible for their thumbs to work with their fingers to pinch, grab, and hold onto things. Ask them if they can think of other primates with opposable thumbs. For example, have them look at a picture (or imagine) a chimpanzee peeling a banana. Could a chimp do this without an opposable thumb? Ask them to think about how different their hands and feet look, compared to the paws on their pet dogs or cats. Do cats and dogs have opposable thumbs? Besides being helpful in themselves, opposable thumbs are valuable in that they allow us to use other, more complicated tools.
Activity 1:
Show the students where the unreachable ball is, and ask a volunteer to retrieve it, using only item(s) from the tray mentioned above under "Materials Required." When he or she has retrieved the ball, ask other students if they could have used different items to devise other effective tools. (The ruler or yardstick will probably be selected.) Ask them if the tools they think could be used were designed to retrieve balls, or if they had to be adapted for that purpose.
Development:
Explain to the students that the purpose of this lesson is to investigate the use of tools by chimpanzees, and that these tools are classified as "naturefacts" or "artifacts." (Remind them that chimps and humans are primates.)
Ask them to read the section on "Termite Fishing" in this National Geographic News article about Elizabeth Vinson Lonsdorf, who is continuing the research of the famous primatologist, Jane Goodall.
Then ask students to read the article "Chimp Escapees," from the Tufts University website.
Hand out the maps of Africa and Tanzania to each student, and have them find Tanzania on the map of Africa and Lake Tanganyika on the map of Tanzania.
Finally, have students identify the tools that the chimps used in these two articles, and ask them to look at the tray used in the Opening Exercise to suggest other tools that could have been devised for the same tasks if the items on the tray had been available to the chimps.
Activity 2:
Place the tray with the small items at the front of the classroom. Ask a student to come to the front of the room. Place a dime on the floor, and challenge the student to pick it up—without bending his or her knees—using only items from the tray as tools. Instruct the student that the items can be manipulated, twisted, broken, etc., as needed. (Make sure the other students don't offer suggestions.) If the student cannot create an appropriate tool (for example, by chewing a piece of gum and placing it on the end of the yardstick) ask him or her to choose another student to try. Keep going until someone figures out how to pick up the dime. Be sure to ask if anyone else has a different idea.
Activity 3:
Place two bowls on opposite sides of the classroom. Fill one with water. Ask a student to move the water across the room to the empty bowl, using only items from the tray, without moving or even touching either bowl. If he or she succeeds, ask other students to try, using different items. (This task could be accomplished by using the bottle tops, the drinking straw, or the sponge.)
Activity 4:
Ask several students to try to remove the cherry or olive from the 6" bottle, without moving the bottle from the table. (Someone will need to hold the bottle still.) Taking turns, each student should devise a different tool from the items on the table. (These could include one or more pieces of wire, the drinking straw, the ink-containing cartridge within the ballpoint pen [or the pen itself], or a piece of broken ruler—items which could be used to skewer the olive or cherry.)
Activity 5:
In the same manner, ask several students to try to remove the small rock from the taller bottle. (One solution would be to use suction through the drinking straw. Wire might be bent to make a successful tool, or a piece of broken ruler could be used, with chewed gum on the end.)
Closing:
Ask students to explain the difference between "naturefacts" and "artifacts," and ask them to determine which category the different tools they devised in class fell into. Ask them how tool use by chimps differs from tool use by humans. Ask them to suggest what they think are the most complex tools humans use, and if they think chimps will ever achieve the level of tool sophistication that humans have attained? Why?
Suggested Student Assessment:
Ask students to think of tasks to challenge their fellow students' creative tool use. Students can work individually, or in pairs or small groups, using whatever items they can think of to solve the problem. This could be an in-class "thought" problem, or a long-term homework assignment.
Extending the Lesson:
- Have students discuss the following question in small groups: If pet dogs and cats had opposable thumbs, how would their daily lives be different? How would those changes affect the humans with whom they live?
- Have students do research on the internet or in the library and prepare a list of primates, with pictures, to post in the classroom. Information about what makes an animal a primate should be included.
- As noted above, it was believed until the 1960s that only humans use tools. Now research suggests that even primates are not alone in this skill. Challenge students to read "It's Time You Primates Quit Making a Monkey Out of Me",
and "Crows Better at Tool Building Than Chimps, Study Says" and analyze the implications of this news for human relationships with other animals.
Related Links:
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