APOP at COSI

 

How We Belong in action!APOP is proud to be partnering with the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) to bring the very best in anthropology education to COSI’s educational facility in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month, faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates from The Ohio State University’s Anthropology Department host anthropology-themed cart activities in COSI’s lobby. These interactive activities help students explore human evolution, archaeology, and culture in new and dynamic ways. Can you use reasoning to unlock the mysteries of human evolution? Or discover the secrets of past cultures? Come visit us at COSI and find out!

Carts rotate and may include:

Walk with your ancestors: This program allows children (and grown-ups!) of all ages to explore what it means to be the only mammal to walk on two legs. Participants will match casts of hominin and ape feet with images of footprints in order to get a sense of footprint diversity, will discuss how the shape of human feet help with locomotion, and will be tasked with making their own footprints in kinetic sand, in order to compare their own prints with that of our ancestors.

Garbology: Be an archaeologist for a day with our Garbology program! Participants are challenged to recreate the lives of modern humans using only the things we leave behind in our day-to-day lives. Sleuthing skills are then applied to objects from the past to provide a better understanding of how archaeologists interpret and understand ancient peoples. How we belong: Ideas surrounding social identity and belonging are explored in this program through hands on exploration of cranial deformation (the practice of changing the shape of the skull in infancy). Findings are related to intentional body modification today (i.e. hair styles, make-up, clothing choices, or tattoos) to show that cranial modifications are not strange or exotic, but instead play an important role in being human.

COSIers at the Garbology cartHeads Up: It’s all about the bones with this hands-on activity aimed at giving participants an opportunity to explore how the shape and size of bones can be used to understand behavior and evolutionary relationships. Participants will be provided with a range of animal skulls, from ducks to chimpanzees, and will be challenged to use their observation skills and logic to create hypotheses about animal behavior and relatedness.

Who’s That Ancestor?: We ask, “whose head is whose?” in this hands-on exploration into our complex evolutionary past. Participants will be introduced to the skulls of 5 of our hominin ancestors, and will be challenged to use physical characteristics to piece together the story of us.

Want to learn more? Contact us today!

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