Cultural evolution (lesson plan)
Students explore the concept of cultural evolution by comparing it to genetic evolution based on a number of concepts, and explore why cultural evolution is so important in our species.
TeachingBase
What motivates people to save energy
In this lesson, students explore a series of experiments in the real world. The experiments tested how various messages on people’s energy bills influenced their actual energy use. What roles do monetary incentives, social norms, appeals to nature or to citizenship play? The intervention is an example of the concept of Nudges, and results highlight the role of social norms and unconscious processes in human behaviors.
- Teaching material type Experiment, Full lesson plan
- Subject Areas Economics, ESD, Ethics, Social Studies
- Learning Goals Critical Thinking, Evaluation Competency, Evolutionary Thinking
- Suitable Grade Levels 6-8, 9-12
- Concepts Imitation bias, Norm psychology, Nudge, Social norms, Sustainable resource use
- Content Anchors Common-Pool Resource management, Our Mind, Sustainable Development Goals
Author: Susan Hanisch
- Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike [CC BY-NC-SA]
