Faculty Syllabus

ANTH 2101 Physical Anthropology Lab offers students the opportunity to engage directly with topics from ANTH 2301 Physical Anthropology lecture.

The course explores the relationship between culture and biology through the methods, theories, and research of biological anthropology.

Students learn about basic mechanisms of genetic change in populations and the relationships between humans and the other primates. The appearance of humans and their bipedal ancestors approximately seven million years ago and their culture history through the Paleolithic age are examined in detail. Students learn about biological variation and adaptation in human populations, responses to the environment, race, and other issues and their applications.

In-class activities include working with primate, human, and hominin skulls and bones (replicas, of course), solving inheritance and population problems, and the basics of forensic biological profile construction.

This course is required for all Anthropology Majors. You must be concurrently enrolled in ANTH 2301 or have passed the course previously to take the lab class.

This is a fully in-person course; attendance is required. If you cannot be in class, you should take the fully online course during the summer session

How will you be graded in this course?

Your grade will be based on a scale of 1000 points, although 1050 points can be earned.

Weekly lab exercises and tasks: 15 @ 30 points each week (450 points possible).  Each week you will engage in dynamic lab work during class designed to introduce you to real-world anthropology issues. These formative assignments will give you hands-on experience solving evolutionary problems, examining primate, hominin, and human anatomy, as well as learning about human variation.

Attendance & Participation: 15 @ 20 points each week (300 points possible). Due to the experiential nature of the lab class attendance each week is required.

Practical exams: 4 @ 75 points each (300 points possible). Summative evaluations of your learning will be scored from four non-cumulative exams during the semester. Exams will be completed on Blackboard or during class (depending on time and topic). Questions will be drawn from assigned readings, activities, and lab work.

How to earn the best grade

1. Attend all class meetings and enthusiastically engage in the lab activities.

2. Read all instructions, tutorials, sample work, and grading rubrics.

3. You are responsible for understanding how you will be graded.

4. Complete all assignments on time and to your best ability to earn as many points as possible.

5. I will not round up grades. If you earn 699 points, your grade will be a D.

6. Extra credit is not offered. 

7. You can earn more than 1000 points; this will provide a cushion for your final grade.

8. Email Dr. Sanchez if you wish for clarification about the grading.

This class does not require the purchase of any lab materials, manuals, or texts.

We will be using the following ZTC textbook as the basic reference for the class:
Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology, https://explorations.americananthro.org/

This text provides the background information for the exercises we will work through but you do not
need to read it if you have already taken ANTH 2301 or have a different text for your current course.
This is just there if you need to brush up for the lab exercises and exams.

There is no lab manual for this class. I will be posting all assignments in weekly folders that will
contain any of the following: lab exercises, videos, articles to read, quizzes, and upload links for
completed labs.

ANTH 2101 Physical Anthropology Lab explores the relationship between culture and biology through the methods, theory and research of biological anthropology. Students learn about basic mechanisms of genetic change in populations and the relationships between humans and the other primates. The appearance of humans and their bipedal ancestors approximately six million years ago and their culture history through the Paleolithic age are examined in detail. Students learn about biological variation and adaptation in human populations, responses to the environment, race, and other issues and their applications.

Topics:

The scientific method

Genetics

Inheritance & Heredity

Macroevolution

Classification

Primate behavior and anatomy

Hominins

Human anatomy

Forensic anthropology

Human Variation

What you will learn by the end of this course:

On successful completion of the class, you will be able to:

• Apply scientific methods to biological anthropological and scientific data.
• Explain how science informs the evolution of species including primates and humans.
• Solve problems involving Punnett Squares and the Hardy-Weinberg equation.
• List the main primate groups and describe different ecological, behavioral, and morphological differences between them.
• Explain how hominin bodies were modified for bipedalism.
• List and describe the main genera of ancient hominins from Sahelanthropus tchadensis to Homo sapiens.
• Utilize proper terminology to describe the bones of the human body
• Name and locate the major bones and features of the human skeleton.
• Recall the basic methods used in forensic anthropology.
• Provide accurate explanations for the various bio-cultural variations found in contemporary human populations.