Responding to the instructions

                                                   

1. The first physical human adaptation I found was when people sweat.  It helps to cool our skin and keep us from getting too hot too fast.

2. Another physical adaptation in humans that I read about is shivering.  When we shiver, humans actually produce heat and get a little bit warmer.

3. When humans learned to make tools to hunt and protect themselves, this was another very important adaptation.  This is behavioral because it had to be learned.

4. Using complex language became another big behavioral adaptation of humans.  Most animals make limited and simple sounds for communication while humans have nearly 7,000 different languages.

                                     

One other type of human adaptation different from the four above that I read about is high altitude adaptation.  Here is a link from Wikipedia about this.

Instructions

HOW DO HUMANS ADAPT?

As a class, we have been studying plant and animal adaptations.  We have looked at a variety of changes that these organisms have undergone over many generations to adapt to their environments and to help them to survive.  In order to wrap up this unit, I've created this blog to permit each of you to research some adaptations that should already be very familiar to you:  human adaptations.  As humans, there are many things that have happened to us physically and that we have learned to do in order to survive or improve our way of life.
                                          

For this blog, I want you to create a new post listing four different human adaptations that you discover during your research.  You should number each adaptation and word your responses in the form of one or two sentences for each.  In your responses, please be sure to include whether it was a physical or behavioral (learned) adaptation.  Also include two pictures or graphics related to human adaptation and include a hyperlink to a story, article, or entry about a human adaptation that is different from the previous four that you listed.

To help with your research, I am providing a link to one of the sites that we used in class to help us study and learn more about adaptions: Science a-z website.  When you access the site, select "life" at the top of the page as we did in class, then under Grades 5-6 select "adaptations" and, finally, select from the leveled reader that you used when you worked in your groups in class.  The login and password information is the same as what was provided to you in your initial packets that you were asked to bring home with you to complete this assignment.  You may also read this article from the discovery.com website.  It gives some more information about humans as hunters, runners, and imaginative thinkers.  Most important of all though is that you enjoy what you learn.  Have fun discovering why humans have some of the most unique adaptations of any of those in the animal kingdom.