Co-Instructors: Nicole Barger and Brendan Thornton
Instructor Emails: nbarger@ucsd.edu, bthornto@ucsd.edu
prerequisites:Basic understanding of evolutionary theory and a background in biology is encouraged.  The course is suitable for students seeking to specialize in evolutionary or pre-med biology or biological, forensic, or archaeological anthropology in college.

Course Description:This course aims to introduce students to basic features of human anatomy from an evolutionary perspective.  Essential features of the musculoskeletal and nervous system will be investigated in the context of their evolutionary importance for human beings compared to their close relatives.  What might account for advanced human intelligence?  How has the physical structure of the human body evolved to facilitate the complex behaviors and lifestyles that characterize modern humans?  Further, we address how the interpretation of human evolutionary biology, especially intelligence, has been influenced by social factors in regards to issues of race and gender and will use this critical perspective to contextualize the issue. 

The course will include lectures, laboratories, group projects, and field trips.  Laboratories will focus on major topics in human evolutionary anatomy.  Group projects will investigate particular neural or musculoskeletal complexes in more detail.  Alternatively, groups may address the way that social perspectives influence the interpretation of scientific research historically and/or today especially when dealing with issues of inequality.  Field trips will be taken to campus laboratories specializing in brain and skeletal analysis and also the Museum of Man. 

Course Objectives:

• To give students a more complete picture of human evolution than would normally be available in high school biology courses.
• To introduce students to basic human musculoskeletal anatomy.
• To introduce students to the anatomy of the human brain.
• To foster an awareness of the interdependence of science and society and provide tools to question and better assess the representation of scientific findings in the media.
• To encourage an understanding of the process of scientific investigation by centering student projects on specific research questions that require a more focused analysis of specialized systems or structures.

Expectations:

• Students should be enthusiastic about human evolution and anatomy.
• Students are expected to attend and to participate actively in all classes, field trips and labs. 
• Students’ knowledge of anatomy will be tested throughout the course. 
• All students will be expected to complete a research project which will be the culmination of the course and presented to the class on the final day.

Course Outline:

Week 1:

• Introduction to topics about evolution for student projects.
• Introduction to topics in human evolution for student projects – Basic Overview of Human Fossil Evolution
• Continue Human Evolution Overview with visit to Museum of Man. Assign group projects.
• Introduction to basic data collection/ anatomical atlases/library research for group projects
• Basic overview of skeletal, muscular, and neural cells and metabolic processes.—Evolution, ethnicity, social status, and eugenics
  
  Week 2:

• Pelvis, legs, and foot
• Shoulders, arms, and hands
• Thorax, spine, and cranium
• Age, sex, and race in skeletal populations – Typing race and gender, historical pitfalls and modern problems. 
• Brain-Lobes of the neocortex and cerebellum. – Intelligence and race

Week 3:

• Brain- structure and function of the frontal and temporal lobes
• Brain-structure and function of the parietal and visual lobes.—Intelligence and gender
• Brain-allocortex: limbic system- Brain-thalamus, hypothalamus.
• Synthesis of post-cranial, cranial, and social perspectives on evolution.
• Presentation of group projects