Fun Fridays at the Library

APOP is now a partner for the Columbus Public Library’s Fun Fridays program so keep an eye out at your local branch for the following programs!

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.

Heads 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.

Do you work for a library? Are you interested in having us run an event at your branch? Contact us today!