JANE GOODALL EDUCATORS INSTITUTE
July 19th - 26th

ACTION PLAN



Heather Heimmer
Biologist; Education Department

Fernbank Museum of Natural History
767 Clifton Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30307
404.929.6341
404.370.8087
heather.heimmer@fernbank.edu


Program Title: Perceiving Primates: Chimpanzees and Us (working title)

Audience: School groups visiting the Museum. Grades 3 through 6.

Location: Auditorium, capacity 150 students per class.

Program Overview: This program is designed to complement and enhance the educational message of the large format film Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees.

Program Goals:

D Educate students about the natural history of chimpanzees

D Establish the concept that chimpanzees are very much like us

D Instill in students a desire to protect chimpanzees and conserve their wild habitats


Implementation Procedure:
Finalize program development, acquire materials, determine available program time and dates, promote in school programs guide and book school groups.

Program Components:

A) What is a chimpanzee?
Where they fit in animal kingdom
Differences between monkeys and apes


B) Chimpanzees and human primates – how we compare
We share 98.6% of our DNA

1) Chimp anatomy versus human anatomy
Demonstration activity: Bring child volunteer on stage. Using various props, compare body structure, size, diet and abilities of human child to those of a chimp of the same age.

Discuss the importance of opposable thumbs
Demonstration activity: Divide the audience in half and select 5 students from each side to form relay teams. Have participants tape down their thumbs to show how tool use would have been much more difficult (or probably wouldn’t have developed) if chimps did not have opposable thumbs. Have students race through stations and each half of the audience cheer for their team.

  1. Chimpanzee behavior and emotions
Social groups, family bonds and maternal care
Demonstration activity: Show slides of chimp facial expressions and have students guess the corresponding emotion. Once the emotion is correctly identified, have all the children imitate it.

  1. Chimpanzee intelligence and tool use
Examples of tool use and problem solving – what chimps can do
Demonstration activity: Show slides or overheads of typical chimp puzzles used in research studies. See how well the students do at choosing the correct answers. Also, describe an actual chimpanzee obstacle/problem and show a picture of available materials in a habitat. See if students can create a tool or come up with a solution as well as the chimp did.

  1. Chimpanzee research
Intelligence studies – what we know, how we’ve learned
What’s going on in Gombe today?
Current research projects
A day in the life of a field researcher
Demonstration activitiy: Show students a video clip of chimps in the wild and have them remember and interpret their observations
  1. Chimpanzees in danger

1) Threats in the wild
Poaching – pet trade, bushmeat crisis
Deforestation
Disease introduced by humans


  1. What you can do
Adopt a chimp – JGI sanctuaries
Take action at home – Roots and Shoots (Jane’s message)

D) Wrap-up and distribute teacher packet and evaluation.


Internal Contacts: Myself

External Contacts: Zoo Atlanta, Yerkes Primate Research Center.

Venue Dates: November 2002 through April 2003 (tentative).

Other Related Program Ideas: