What does it mean to group humans based on physical or genetic traits? Students explore how human classifications have developed over time and examine the relationship between genetic variation and socially defined categories. Through scientific inquiry and historical analysis, students assess whether commonly held beliefs about human difference align with current genetic research.
Overview
In these lessons, students explore the history of how human populations have been categorized and how those ideas have evolved over time. They examine how scientific research, particularly in genetics, shows that human variation is complex and does not support fixed biological groupings. Students also consider how long-standing social structures and differences in lived experience can affect access to resources, including in healthcare. Through interdisciplinary study, students learn to analyze both the scientific and societal dimensions of human diversity.
DETAILS:
8 Lesson plans
Adapted for Remote Learning
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Driving Question Intro / Identity
Use a Driving Question Board to generate questions related to the idea of race. Explore elements of avowed and ascribed identities (including race and ancestry) and how these identities can influence one’s experiences.
Implicit Bias and Structural Racism
Explore the three levels of racism (structural/systemic, personally mediated, and internalized), and how cognitive shortcuts our brains make are influenced by each to create implicit bias.
Racism and Scientific History
Understand the impact of some scientists in creating and furthering the idea of race and racial hierarchies to justify oppression, exploitation, and genocide. More recently, scientists studying human variation have provided evidence for why race is not inherently a biologically meaningful category.
Race is not Ancestry
Investigate whether race and ancestry are related examining the fluid nature of race categories relative to a person’s ancestry. Learn about migration and mixing over human history. Study the US Census categories to observe the changes in racial ideas over time.
Race is Not Genetic: Sources of Variation
Explore the impact of geography, history, and evolutionary factors on human genetic variation and whether race makes a good proxy for ancestry when describing human groups.
Race is Not Genetic: Characterizing Variation
Explore whether genetics or genes can be a good tool to distinguish one “race” group from another. Learn that there is more variation within, than between, conventional race groups.
Health Inequities
Is race really a risk factor for certain diseases? Explore what it means when one group of people is at higher risk than others.
Student Education Campaigns
Reflect on the lessons and apply those to an education campaign to promote deeper understandings about race and take action for justice.
Unit Closing and Final Assessment
Reflect on and close out the lessons by applying student learning to a fictional or real-world example of a race-based misconception and responding to it. Includes a new decision tree tool for crafting your own response and a post-unit survey.
