The Early Human World - Unit 4

Unit 4 of The Early Human World focused on how modern humans emerged. The big ideas covered in this unit were change and creativity, with primary sources documenting the emergence of people in Australia and animals they encountered, the disappearance of Neandertals and emergence of Cro-Magnons in Europe, technological innovations, and cave art.

Energy

The First Law of Thermodynamics says that energy can not be created nor destroyed, but only transform. We made a bow drill to see if we could change muscle energy into heat energy. Actually, all energy comes from the sun, since the food I ate comes from plants, or from animals who eat plants, and plants get their energy from the sun through photosynthesis.

For the bow drill, we took a bow-shaped stick, two blocks, and a straight stick. After stringing the bow-shaped stick, we tried to spin the straight stick with the bow. We got a little bit of heat, but it was hard to do!

The earliest people who made fire this way probably went through a lot of trial and error!