ScienceMakers Toolkit Manual - The History Makers

Concept Application
In the application phase of the activity, divide the students into cooperative learning groups of three or four
to research the answers to the focus questions. The groups should report back to the class as a whole and they
should be aware that their answers may vary.
Fingertip Information for Easier Teaching
Lab preparation time– 20 to 25 minutes
Diffi culties
Some students may not wish to be the subjects to be mapped. They can record and help their group analyze
data.
Student Focus Questions
1. How is the pseudoscience of phrenology similar to the idea of localized function in the brain? How is it
different?
2. Compare the size and shape of the rat homunculus with a typical rat body. (Kandel, 1991)
3. Why does the cat have more touch receptors around its mouth and lips than in other parts of its body?
Suggest some adaptive behaviors in which this characteristic would be important.
4. Using the principles of natural selection, explain why the areas of the somatosensory cortex might be
different for different species of mammals.
5. Consider the changes that modern technology might bring to the life styles of humans and predict how
the shape of the human homunculus might change in the next 10,000 years.
See this experiment online at: http://www.doitscience.com/2009/05/mapping-the-homunculus/
S. Allen Counter - Video Clip Transcription
Clip 1 - Working for Small-Town Paper: We had a local teacher who was a…a very fi ne person in the community.
Really a wonderful person, a great infl uence on a lot of young people, his name was Mr. Izell Hester.
He had graduated from Florida A&M University, and he was the local person in Boynton who wrote for the
newspaper, the county newspaper, called the Photo News. It was the black newspaper. And he decided, or he
was called or whatever, to go to the military. So he went off to the military, and there was nobody to take over
his column. So I recall a very brilliant grandmother saying to me, and I must have been about ten years old or
something, I’m pretty sure I was about ten, “Why don’t you take it over?” And I basically said, “I can’t do that.”
She said, “Yes, you can, I’ve looked at your writing.” And I said, “But Grandmother, Momma, I can’t do that.”
And she said “Yes, you can. I’ll even help you.” So I thought about it and I had the courage to try it. So if you
go back and read the Photo News back in the late fi fties, you’ll see that the articles are basically: Mr. John Doe
and his family came to visit Boynton this weekend and met with all of his relatives for a family reunion…and
a great time was had by all. I mean, most of the articles ended that way, you know, but I had a chance to write
a column. I mean, I was ten years old. And the Photo News I think is still on-going in the Palm Beach County,
Florida. But it was the fi rst black paper there, and I had a chance to write for it, and I wrote the little column for
Boynton and that was a real … it’s those little things, that somehow your parents fi nd a way to get you involved
in that will lead to your ultimate kind of success, if you will, in life.
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Life Science