Peer Review

Primate Evolution – Family Ties

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Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: Learn more about how all present-day primates, including human-beings, have evolved from a common ancestor. Videos, lesson plans.
Type of Material:: Lesson materials, videos and charts for the teacher.
Recommended Uses:: This lesson plan can be used as part of a lesson in evolution. The multimedia assets can be used for in-class work. Individual videos can be viewed out side of class, however, activities need to be guided by a facilitator.
Technical Requirements:: Microsoft Office: Word, PowerPoint, Excel
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Learning goals are not specifically identified, but it is implied that the material is for helping teachers design an effective lesson in primate evolution.
Target Student Population:: The activity is designed specifically for learners aged 14 to 16.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: A fast internet connection is helpful in downloading the photographs and videos.

Rating:
Strengths:: The real value of this material is in the multimedia resources from the ARKive website. These resources afford the teacher the opportunity to create a substantive lesson that requires some in-depth planning.
Concerns:: The teacher guide seems a bit simplistic so the teacher needs to delve a lot deeper into the material. Extra content is offered to members.

Rating:
Strengths:: The learning objective is to provide students and teachers with photographs. lesson plans and videos to help them better visualize the primates that may not be in their environment. The assets such as videos still images in the "Scrapbook" area provide the content for lesson planning.
Concerns:: While the material is accompanied by a lesson plan, the goals and objectives are not well-defined.

Rating:
Strengths:: Access to the material is somewhat easy once the user has figured out which link navigates to the substantive material. Once in that material area (the Scrapbook), it is very easy to use and navigate and use the Scrapbook as a resource. The teacher guide is easy to download as is the student handout.
Concerns:: Links to the available materials need to be better defined. Unless one is familiar with the Wildlife Arkive website, it is difficult for a first time user to understand that most of the content for the lesson is in the Scrapbook link. It was difficult for one reviewer to return to the previous page while on the site.

Other Issues and Comments:: Terms of use were last updated in 2013. No other dates can be found on the overall Arkive website. (Primate Evolution is just one of many other science-based lessons.) The Arkive website is sponsored by a not-for-profit UK organization funded by Hewlett-Packard.
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