Getting In Touch With Our Roots

We put our research skills to work sketching to learn. At the American Museum of Natural History we explored amazing exhibits and artifacts, learning about human origins and evolution.

Check out some awesome reflections and pictures below.

"I think that the Indians/Native Americans decorated their clothing because they had more resources like berries to make paint and clay to make beads unlike the Neanderthals who had less plants and probably no clay because it was the Ice Age and every thing was frozen or very cold (probably to cold for most plants to grow).I came to this idea because in all the display cases of Indians/Native Americans they had tons of beads and colored fabric but in all the display cases of the Neanderthals they had plain fur." More at Emma N.'s blog 

"Today we went to the Natural History Museum.  The idea I learned from today was that Neanderthals have big feet, which probably means that they lived on rocky terrain and had bigger feet to help them get a grip on rocks.  I came to this idea because one time in the museum there was a compare foot sizes and I saw that our feet were much smaller than theirs.  I think that maybe Neanderthals had tough skin for that rocky terrain.  Another reason I think Neanderthals have big feet is for running because they didn't have cars or horses or any transportation.  This affects the greater world because if they did not have that resource then they would not have been able to migrate, and we would not be here today." More at Anjali's blog

"Today me and my class went to The Museum of Natural History!!! Me and

my classmates are studying the Neanderthals. We saw lots of very cool exhibits. We also got three papers to fill out. I made sure to stuff mine and I'm sure lots of other people did too. My class also studying how Columbus got to America and what he did to the Native Americans. So we also got to look at Native American stuff too!!!!! I got a idea from my visit there, I wonder if theNeanderthals noticed that they were evolving. I came to this wonderful idea by thinking that the Neanderthals evolved in to homo-sapians right? Wouldn't they notice the change?  This affects me and all the other people of the Universe because if the Neanderthals didn't evolve then none of you people would be reading this amazing blog update because computers wouldn't have been invented because human race wouldn't exist!!!! "   More at Grace's blog

"How did we get smarter all of a sudden? and we also suddenly started using electricity and stoped using our natual resources. every thing now is being bought at macy's or marshals! this can effect me because sooner or later every thing will get priced higher and there will be so much technlolagy that ther might not even be books,only robots. this can also evect the greater world because there can be oil spills all over th oceans and alot of smoke can be in the are bcause of factories and cigaretts.to much polution and you can say you're last goodbyes to the planet earth you know and love!!!" More at Vanessa's blog

"Today our class went on trip to the Museum of Natural History. We saw a lot of exhibits about different ancient civilizations. The exhibit that was most interesting to me was the one about the Neanderthals. One thing I noticed was that the Neanderthals bones were cracked. The bones of more modern people are not cracked. An idea I had was about why the bones were cracked. It must have been that they did not have enough nutrients to keep their bones healthy. As civilization developed, people became better at eating healthy foods. This affects me because if I don't get enough nutrients I could get sick and have weak bones." More at Paulino's blog