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Subject: Science/Evolution
Ages: 14+
Length:
Snippet: 9 minutes (in three segments).
Lesson: Two class periods. Two 45 - 55 minute class periods. Homework: an essay in between
the two class periods.
Learner Outcomes/Objectives: Students will learn about the timescale of evolution through
the fictional evolution of humankind 800,000 years into the future into different sub-species
that live in a complex relationship of predation and reproduction. Students will also learn
about the mechanisms that drive evolution, namely mutations and natural selection, and to
relate this to the genetic code and its carrier molecule, the DNA. The fictional elements of this
science fiction movie will also allow students to know and discuss the idea that human
evolution has come to a halt, held by many researchers and currently under debate.
Rationale: The movie The Time Machine places events 800,000 years in the future and
speculates on how the human race might have split into various sub-species, each of which
plays different role in the ecosystem they live in. One of the sub-species has developed an
advanced ability of mind control through which it uses another one as hunters and the third
one as prey on which the other two live on. This scenario assumes and implies various aspects
of human evolution.
Description of the snippet:
The snippet includes three segments in which scientist and inventor Alexander Hartdegen
travels with his Time Machine 800,000 years to the future. During the voyage we see the
landscape evolve around him, showing how it changes due to climate changes and erosion. We
see Hartdegen trapped in the society he encounters in that time: the woman that has
tendered him while recovering from the injuries he got in his previous stop in his time travels
belongs to a rather primitive tribe which is attacked by monster-like creatures that come up
from underground and hunt them all down. Hartdegen meets a yet different being that tells
him how the human species evolved into this three sub-species, one of which controls the
minds of the other and uses the third one as food reservoir.
Helpful Background: The first of the issues on evolution that will be addressed in this lesson
plan is the timescale of evolution. Human evolution is commonly understood as beginning 2,5
millions of years ago with the appearance of the Homo Habilis the first beings considered as
belonging to the genus homo, within which we (Homo Sapiens Sapiens) are a subspecies of the
species Homo Sapiens. (Homo Neandethalensis (Neanderthal Man) would be a different
species, for example). Evolution of other living beings is usually also associated to extremely
long timescales, but there are several interesting instances of distinct evolution having been
observed in the time lapse of short-term scientific observations. Record holding is the case of
the Tropical Blue Moon Butterfly, which has, in just a few years, come up with a mechanism to
fight back bacteria which were killing most of its male population (see
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6896753.stm). There is also talk about a noticeable evolution in
the size of adult fish due man-induced “un-natural” selection by fishing. It is considered a
possibility that the catching of the larger fish of highly consumed species is inducing an
evolutionary
pattern
towards
a
smaller
adult
size
(see
http://www.pnas.org/content/106/suppl.1/9987.full).
Now, how does evolution work? This question brings us to the basics of this matter: there are
two important parts in the process by which changes happen in a particular living species by
evolution. In order to understand this we need to know that the information about the whole
living individual is contained within a molecule called DNA (Desoxiribonucleic Acid) that is
present in each single cell of its body. It is as if each cell had a copy of a full “users manual” to
build the body, from which it reads only the information relevant to its location and function
within the organism. Within the DNA, the information is encoded in units called genes. During
the reproduction of the cells, the DNA is copied so as to be again available in each of the new
cells, and errors can occur. When a copied gene differs from the original version it is said that a
mutation has taken place. If such a mutation happens during the early stage of the
development of the organism or in a gamete, it can happen that most or all of its cells carry
the altered information. The corresponding feature of the organism will then be
correspondingly altered. If this is to the advantage of that particular individual, it may outlive
other individuals of its species and thus be more successful in leaving offspring – now with the
mutated gene, which in turn will spread fast and produce a new group of organisms that are
more apt to survive. Strictly speaking it cannot be said that a particular species has
“developed” a new feature. Rather, the competition for survival has selected those individuals
that are more fit in what we call natural selection.
This brings us to the third issue addressed in this lesson plan, one that can be an interesting
discussion topic. It has been suggested by some scientists that human evolution has come to a
halt. In modern civilized society, individuals that would quickly perish if we were living in the
wild competing for food and territory, are taken care of and can grow up and have children. No
genes are lost due to natural selection as we fight to cure or counterweight genetically induced
diseases or defects. This issue is under debate in the scientific community and many articles
and opinions can be found. These are some examples:
http://discovermagazine.com/1992/aug/hashumanevolutio95
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2002/feb/03/genetics.research
http://www.blackchampagne.com/articles/evolution-stopped.shtml
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/article4894696.ece
Using the snippet in class
Preparation
1. Be familiar with the location of the segments and cue the DVD to the first segment.
Segment 1: Chapter 12. From 0:33:20 to 0:34:50.
Hartdegen has had a narrow escape from the year 2037, where he encountered a world on the
verge of being destroyed because the moon is breaking up. He sits unconsciously in the Time
Machine, while it travels into the future at full speed and without control. We see the
landscape evolving until Hartdegen regains consciousness and stops the machine in the year
802,037.
Segment 2: Chapter 16. From 0:50:03 to 0:54:06
Hartdegen has recovered with the help of Mara, a female inhabitant of this future society that
looks surprisingly primitive. He goes to see how the Time Machine survived the last trip, but
while he considers travelling back to the past, the tribe of humans he is with suffers an attack
by creatures that emerge from the ground and start hunting them all down. The chapter ends
in the middle of the fight.
Segment 3: Chapters 21 and part of 22. From 1:08:14 to 1:11:45.
Hartdegen has been captured as well and is allowed to visit the being that seems to control the
hunting creatures from underground. This being explains the way things work in this future
society and how it came about. The segment ends when he tells Hartdegen “Who are you to
question…800,000 years of evolution?”
2. Review the links in this Guide, pick those that are appropriate for the class and the
lesson, and decide how to present them to the class.
Step by Step
First Class Period
1. Ask students what they understand by “evolution”. During the ensuing discussion it
will probably become clear that most of the students associate evolution with very
long timescales. (Make a note – on the board or on a sheet, for later use – of other
features related with evolution that come up during the discussion, especially those
related to mutations, natural selection and genes).
2. Play the first segment commenting to the students that, as they have said themselves,
evolution takes place over very long timescales. The movie “The Time Machine” allows
us to imagine jumping 800,000 years into the future, and this segment shows what can
happen over such a long period in terms of the geology of the earth (erosion produces
canyons and arcs in rock, climate changes occur, with mild periods between
glaciations…).
3. Bring up the surprising two examples
Helpful Background, the Tropical Blue
commercially interesting species. This
explain the process of evolution and
natural selection:
of rapid evolution mentioned in the section
Moon Butterfly and the size of adult fish in
two examples can be the starting point to
its two driving mechanisms, mutations and
a. The Tropical Blue Moon Butterfly: The butterflies carry a parasitic bacteria
that was killing most male embryos before they hatched, leaving the male
population at a mere 1%. Due to a mutation, the genetic information of the
butterfly started to include a “suppressor” gene that is able to keep the
bacteria in check. This led to a larger proportion of males carrying this gene
and a rapid spread of the gene in successive generations of butterflies. Male
population is now back to almost half of all specimens.
b. Fish and fishing practices: International regulations set a lower limit to the size
of fish that can be caught and commercialized. In those species affected by the
regulations, adult specimens above this limit are caught while the smaller ones
are left back – and have more time to breed. Genes that produce a smaller
adult size are therefore favored by the regulations and by intense fishing,
which play the role of natural selection (in a rather un-natural fashion). It has
been established indeed that the size of adults in commercially interesting
species has shrunk, and it is explained in these terms of human-induced
evolution.
Finish by recalling that these cases are indeed exceptions, and that evolution does
indeed take place over very long timescales, as those considered in “The Time
Machine”.
4. Ask students to think (and to search in literature and/or internet to find documental
support) on how human evolution might develop over the coming 800,000 years. This
assignment can be done either individually on in groups. The latter option will make it
less time consuming to go over the conclusions reached at the beginning of the second
class period.
Second Class Period
5. Ask students to explain briefly to the class what conclusions they have reached as to
how human evolution will develop over the next 800,000 years. Try to detect in their
conclusions errors that may stem from an incorrect understanding of the driving
mechanisms of evolution, mutations and natural selection. A wrong comprehension of
these mechanisms underlies most misunderstandings and non-scientific debates on
the issue of evolution. For example, it must be insisted upon the fact that evolution is
not a “finalist” process by which a species pointedly tries to solve a problem that
menaces its existence – in fact, extinctions occur everyday because species are unable
to solve fatal disadvantages – , but rather the result of random mutations sometimes
being useful for survival. Thus evolutionary changes are not the answer to questions
like “why” did this or that species develop one or the other feature, but rather to
questions asked in terms of “how” this species ended up having this or that feature.
6. Play the second and third segments, in which the future scenario is shown and
explained by the character played by Jeremy Irons, representative of the “Übermorlock” species that controls the mind of the others.
7. Point out that the moviemakers incur also in the same error mentioned above, namely
ascribing an intention, a goal, to the evolutionary process that has led to the depicted
scenario. The Über-morlock explains that they “decided” to specialize in mind control
“in order” to adjust to the new living conditions on Earth once the Moon was
destroyed. Even if his species decided to “select” for reproduction only those
individuals with apparently the largest mental capabilities, so as to favor the
corresponding genes, the changes would be barely noticeable within a single
generation, leaving nothing to select from and no direction to go for those charged
with the task of selecting. In addition this would bring about severe moral issues within
that allegedly intelligent species, regarding the prohibition to reproduce to all but the
most mentally fit.
The closest real case to this situation is the gradual and human induced increase in the
size of cultivated cereals, as farmers naturally select the largest seeds to sow, and
generations succeed each other on a yearly basis, allowing for changes to be
noticeable within the working life of a single farmer. This is usually referred to as a
“natural” way of genetic engineering. It is, in fact, as are most kinds of domestication
of vegetal and animal life, accelerated and human-induced evolution (see
http://www.worldagroforestry.org/projects/allanblackia/domestication.html).
8. Propose the issue of human evolution having arrived at a standstill, as suggested by
part of the evolutionary scientists, as a topic for debate. Let students know that there
is no “correct” answer to this question, as the debate is currently taking place in the
scientific community. Use the debate as an occasion to observe the students’
arguments and to insist, if necessary, on a correct understanding of the mechanisms
that drive evolution.
Supplemental Materials and Links
An interesting interactive tool to explore human evolution from the Smithsonian Institute’s
National Museum of Natural History:
http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-evolution-timeline-interactive
An interactive timeline of human evolution from New Scientist.
http://www.newscientist.com/movie/becoming-human
An interactive timeline with detailed information on each hominid species
http://www.archaeologyinfo.com/species.htm