The Stickleback: Evidence of evolution?
Published: 8 September 2009 (GMT+10)
Photo by sam2cents, flickr.com
The stickleback—an evolutionary ‘superstar’? Charles Darwin did not mention the stickleback in his 1859 On the Origin of Species. In his subsequent writings, Darwin briefly referred to the stickleback when he was struggling with the question of how animals select mates, and the male stickleback’s devoted care of the young. But today, the stickleback has become an ‘icon’ of evolution.
“One of the most compelling case studies of evolution” is how one leading biologist labelled the stickleback fish (Gasterosteus spp.).1 A Science journal writer termed it a “star” of evolutionary research.2 Another science reporter went even further, dubbing it as a “superstar of evolutionary science”, adding that “Sticklebacks are so central to the new wave of evolutionary research that they may well eclipse Darwin’s finches in importance and earn the honorary title of ‘Darwin’s finches’.”3
But on what evidence do they base these grandiose claims?
Differences between saltwater and freshwater sticklebacks
Threespine sticklebacks can be found in oceans and coastal rivers and streams in north America, Japan and northern Asia and Europe.
The oceangoing sticklebacks spend most of their adult life in the sea, returning to freshwater to breed.5
The saltwater form is morphologically similar all around the Northern Hemisphere, with adults typically between 6–10 cm (2–4 in.) in length, with long dorsal and pelvic spines. Lacking scales, their bodies are covered by as many as 36 armour plates covering their sides6 —believed to protect sticklebacks against predatory fish. Certainly the spines seem to serve that purpose, because when a larger fish tries to eat a marine stickleback, the stickleback defends itself by extending the spines on its back and pelvis.
In contrast to the saltwater form, freshwater populations are extremely morphologically diverse, with great variation between sticklebacks from different streams or lakes.7 They also have generally shorter dorsal and pelvic spines and substantially fewer armour plates (normally 12 or less) than their marine counterparts. In fact, many freshwater sticklebacks have no pelvic spines or armour plates at all.
These differences between saltwater and freshwater forms of the stickleback are paraded as evidence of evolution, i.e. the marine form “evolved” into the freshwater form over evolutionary timescales:
“Sticklebacks were once a solely saltwater species that migrated from the sea to streams and lakes to breed; as the glaciers retreated up to 22,000 years ago, some settled in lakes. Although they evolved to look very different from their ancestors, they often came to resemble their counterparts who were evolving in a similar way in lakes that are geographically distant.”2,8
It is certainly not unreasonable to conclude that the freshwater stickleback is descended from the saltwater form. After all, ocean-going sticklebacks migrate up streams to inland freshwater lakes to spawn, both freshwater and saltwater populations can interbreed, and, as we shall see, recent observations certainly support this. But are the changes in stickleback morphology really evolutionary? Is the stickleback’s “disappearing armour” truly evidence for the capacity of fish to have gradually evolved into philosophers over supposed hundreds of millions of years?
Somewhat ironically, thanks to evolutionary scientists’ eagerly directing their attention to the stickleback and various freshwater lakes as “natural laboratories for evolutionary studies”, these questions have been answered—by evolutionists themselves. As we shall see, stickleback changes have been acknowledged as not only providing no support for molecules-to-man evolution, but have also upset the “slow-and-gradual” long-age evolutionary mindset.
Recolonization of a freshwater lake by ocean sticklebacks, and subsequent adaptation
Loberg Lake is a small (~4.5 hectares) lake in Southern Alaska. In 1982 the Alaska Department of Fish and Game poisoned all the fish in Loberg Lake to improve the lake for recreational fishing (i.e. as preparation for restocking the lake with salmon and trout). Thus Loberg’s native freshwater stickleback population was exterminated.
However, eight years later, researchers sampling Lake Loberg found that the sticklebacks were back. But these new sticklebacks were strikingly different from the pre-1982 population, as they were heavily armoured, like ocean-going sticklebacks. The researchers surmised, quite reasonably, that saltwater sticklebacks had made their way upstream from Cook Inlet and colonized Lake Loberg sometime between 1983 and 1989.9
In the years since 1990, however, annual sampling of the lake’s sticklebacks revealed a progressive reduction in body armour. In 1990, fully-plated sticklebacks made up 96% of the population, but just three years later, only 39% had the full suite of bony body plates.10 Individuals with only the front plates first appeared in 1991, but by 2001 their numbers had increased to 75%.
Thus after just a few generations (sticklebacks take 1–3 years to reach maturity), the sticklebacks in Lake Loberg increasingly resembled the pre-1982 native stickleback population, and their freshwater counterparts in other Alaskan lakes and streams. So what had driven this rapid reduction of armour plating and pelvic spines?
Natural selection at work
Looking past the hype of researchers’ claims that this is “rapid evolution”,9 it is in fact a classic example of “strong natural selection acting on variation that was carried by the anadromous11 fish that colonized the lake”.9 Notice that natural selection acted on existing variation in the colonizing stickleback population. In other words, the so-called “rapid evolution” did not result in the addition of any new features but rather the reduction or even complete loss of existing features—bony plates and pelvic spines.
The researchers have made several reasonable suggestions as to why the selection pressure should be so strong, i.e. favouring the fast loss of spines and plates in freshwater habitat:
- As a trade-off for the bulky armour, sticklebacks likely gain in speed and agility, so as lakes typically have places to hide, the fish can escape from any larger predators lurking, assuming the sticklebacks can dart into ‘hiding holes’ quickly enough.2
- As many lakes lack the large predatory fish typical of ocean waters, the selection pressure for armour no longer applies, hence fish lacking pelvic spines and/or with less bony plate covering survive. Also, because fresh water lacks the rich calcium reserves of sea water, bony armour could be “too costly to make”.2 Supporting this, biologists have documented that sticklebacks with reduced armour are significantly larger in size. One of the researchers explained, “If the fish aren’t expending resources growing bones—which may be significantly more difficult in fresh water due to its lack of ions—they can devote more energy to increasing biomass. This in turn allows them to breed earlier and improves over-winter survival rate.”12
- On the lake bottom, in the absence of a threat from larger predators, pelvic spines not only lose their defensive value, but turn out to be a handicap when dragonfly larvae and other bottom-dwelling predator larvae are present. University of Utah biologist Michael Shapiro explained, “[D]ragonfly larvae can grab sticklebacks by the [belly] spines, reel them in and eat them. They wait for sticklebacks to swim by and grab them.”13,14
A decline in armour in stickleback populations has also been reported in other freshwater locations.
For example, when researchers relocated 200 marine sticklebacks to freshwater ponds on the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus, they soon observed in the offspring that “natural selection favours reduced armour in freshwater”.12 From that and other studies, geneticists have now identified that a mutated genetic switch is responsible for the loss of armour. Specifically, it affects expression of the Pitx gene. In the pelvic region, the corrupted genetic switch prevents spines forming in that area. Elsewhere, it can affect “a whole suite of bony characters”2 not just the external bony plates but also jaw shape and bones associated with protecting the gills.
Hence this now gives us a better understanding of genetic factors undergirding the great morphological variation in freshwater sticklebacks,7 even such differences as jaw shape, upon which natural selection can act. (Note that studies have found that the genetic basis for low-platedness is present in populations of ocean-going sticklebacks, albeit at low frequencies.)15
Note that at root here is brokenness or corruption—right in line with the Bible’s account of the Creation being corrupted, in “bondage to decay” (Romans 8:19–22). It is certainly no support for fish-to-philosopher evolution, as there is no new genetic information here, rather the mutated (i.e. broken) genetic switch simply prevents expression of a gene.
That is in no way evolution but rather devolution—see The evolution train’s a-comin (Sorry, a-goin’—in the wrong direction) and Mutations: evolution’s engine becomes evolution’s end! Even leading evolutionary proponent Jerry Coyne (University of Chicago) has candidly admitted as much: “these examples represent the loss of traits, rather than the origin of evolutionary novelties.”16
Despite Coyne and other evolutionists recognizing this, they are not backing away from their belief in evolution. Prominent evolutionist Sean Carroll (with two colleagues), writing in Scientific American of the stickleback’s disappearing pelvic spine under the heading “A Beneficial Loss” (emphasis added), nevertheless claims it “offers another vivid example of adaptation through the evolution of a gene-regulating enhancer sequence.”17
Similar pro-evolution “spin” on the pelvic spine loss comes from Neil Shubin and Randall Dahn, writing in Nature: “Surprisingly, some of the most significant novelties in the history of life are associated not with the evolution of new structures but with the loss or reduction of primitive ones.”18 Incredibly, they (and other evolutionists)17,19 refer to the stickback’s pelvic spine as being a limb, and therefore the observed “limb reduction” in freshwater stickleback populations can be equated with “hindlimb loss” in whales and manatees!20 (Whales and manatees, aquatic mammals, are presumed over tens of millions of years of supposed earth history to have evolved from terrestrial quadrupeds. However, as we have written previously (see, e.g., Not at all like a whale), such creative storytelling (with, of necessity, it’s ever-changing storyline to fit each new discovery of contradicting evidence) is completely without credible foundation.)
“Slow-and-gradual” notions debunked
An article in Science journal explained, “Since the 1930s, the prevailing view has been that evolution moves in a slow shuffle, advancing in small increments, propelled by numerous, minor genetic changes.”2 However, by evolutionists’ own admission, the stickleback findings represent a challenge to that view.
As we’ve seen, dramatic changes in the fish’s bony armour were traced to an already-existing corrupted form of just one gene switch. The article in Science conceded, “from an evolutionary perspective, this gene may change at lightning speeds.”2 While evolutionists are describing this as “rapid evolution”, the reality, in their own words, is simply that “natural selection had taken its toll on the armored fish in just a few years”.2
As The Scientist put it, “when these marine fish move to a new freshwater environment, the low-plated phenotype has a selective advantage, and the low-plated fish can appear quickly through natural selection at a higher frequency of the preexisting genetic change.”21 (Emphasis added.)
Of course, this is right in line with a biblical perspective. (See Brisk biters—fast changes in mosquitoes astonish evolutionists, but delight creationists.) It’s most certainly not “rapid evolution” at work as there is nowhere in evidence any sort of processes that might have been able to change pond scum into people over billions of years. Rather, it is just natural selection operating on existing genetic information, acting to favour a corrupted gene switch,22 which thus becomes predominant in the stickleback population after just a few generations. Such rapid changes within the stickleback ought be no surprise.
Rapid reversal, too! (and it’s not evolution, either)
Despite the lessons evolutionary researchers learned from having observed rapid changes in saltwater sticklebacks colonizing freshwater lakes, they were in for another stickleback surprise. The ScienceDaily headline summed it up, “Rapid, dramatic ‘reverse evolution’ documented in tiny fish species”. The article went on to explain that “Evolution is supposed to inch forward over eons,” but in Lake Washington (near Seattle), stickleback researchers had observed that “the process can go in relative warp-speed reverse”.23 (Emphasis added.)
Other reports used similar language. “While evolution is usually expected to creep along over eons, the stickleback has managed to evolve in full-speed reverse … ”, explained a newspaper article, citing it as “a rare example of animal reverting to an earlier evolutionary version to survive a rapid change in its environment.”24 That report quoted one researcher as saying, “It was very surprising.”
So what actually happened? Five decades ago, when Lake Washington was so polluted that visibility was limited to about 75 cm (30 inches), only about 6% of the lake’s sticklebacks were fully plated (like the saltwater form)—the remainder having little or no armour. But since a pollution cleanup operation began in the mid-1960s, the researchers, “to their surprise”,24 recorded that the proportion of fully-plated sticklebacks (i.e. from snout-to-tail) has increased to about 49% today, with an additional 35% having at least half of their bodies shielded in bony armour.
The researchers surmise that prior to the cleanup, the murky water provided sticklebacks with “an opaque blanket of security” against their primary predator in Lake Washington, cutthroat trout, so armour plating was of little advantage. But as visibility improved—by the early 1970s it was up to 3 metres (10 ft); today water clarity is approaching 7.5 metres (25 ft)—low-armour sticklebacks became more vulnerable to the cutthroat trout that suddenly could now see, and eat, them.
Of course, this has nothing to do with microbes-to-man evolution, ‘reverse’ or otherwise. It is simply yet another example of natural selection operating on existing genetic information—note that just prior to the cleanup, a small proportion (6%) of the stickleback population were fully-plated. With increased water transparency, there was now a stronger selection pressure against low-plating, and so natural selection favoured fish with more armour. In the researchers’ own words summing up their paper in Current Biology (when we look past their claims of “reverse evolution” and “rapid evolution”), we see natural selection for sure, but no evidence of any new genetic information of the sort needed to turn sticklebacks into scientists, whether over a short time or long:
“On the basis of our genetic studies and simulations, we propose that the most likely cause of reverse evolution is increased selection for the completely plated morph, which we suggest could result from higher levels of trout predation after a sudden increase in water transparency during the early 1970s. Rapid evolution was facilitated by the existence of standing allelic variation in Ectodysplasin (Eda), the gene that underlies the major plate-morph locus. The Lake Washington stickleback thus provides a novel example of reverse evolution, which is probably caused by a change in allele frequency at the major plate locus in response to a changing predation regime.”25 (Emphasis added.)
This is not the first time that evolutionists have tried to claim shifting gene frequencies in a population as evidence for molecules-to-man evolution—see Goodbye, peppered moths and Don’t fall for the bait and switch. At the end of five decades of supposed “rapid, reverse evolution”, Lake Washington’s stickleback population is still a population of sticklebacks. No evolution has taken place.
Stickleback speciation is not evolution
As mentioned at the start of this article, Nature journal has this year decreed the stickleback to be one of “15 Evolutionary Gems”. (There were five “Gems from the Fossil Record”, four “Gems from Molecular Processes” with the stickleback being one of six “Gems from Habitats”; specifically tagged: “Natural selection in speciation”.)4 The journal cited its own 2004 paper by the University of Wisconsin’s Jeffrey McKinnon and his colleagues reporting that reproductive isolation in sticklebacks “can evolve as a by-product of selection on body size”.26
Put simply, the basis for the claim that this is evidence of evolution can be summed up as follows:
- Individual sticklebacks tend to mate with individuals like themselves, i.e. of similar size and occupying similar ecological niche.27 E.g. the long and heavy-bodied benthic form (feeds on invertebrates at the lake bottom; has a relatively horizontal jaw and small eyes) usually prefers not to mate with the shorter, slimmer limnetic form (sticklebacks that live in the surface waters of lakes, feeding on plankton; they can have an upturned jaw and large eyes). Thus the different forms can be said to be reproductively isolated.
- Having demonstrated that forms with distinctively different physical features are also reproductively isolated from each other, biologists can declare the different forms to be different species, i.e. there has been speciation.
- Speciation is evidence of evolution.
The argument that speciation is evidence of evolution has been thoroughly rebutted in our earlier publications—see e.g. Chapter 4 of Refuting Evolution II. Rapid speciation is no surprise from a biblical perspective—see Speedy Species Surprise. In short, species are subsets of the originally created kinds, as can be readily seen by examples of inter-species hybridization (see, e.g. Ligers and wholphins? What next?)
In sticklebacks, although the benthic and limnetic forms in the wild are reproductively isolated, and therefore can technically be declared to be separate species, they can still mate with each other. E.g. benthic and limnetic sticklebacks in Lake Enos on Vancouver Island are now known to be interbreeding and are no longer two distinct species.28 And of course, as already mentioned, freshwater sticklebacks can be readily crossed with ocean-going sticklebacks—in fact, it was through careful observation of such crosses that the Pitx gene was identified.
The stickleback provides us with great examples of natural selection, mutations, rapid adaptation and speciation. Claims that these are evidence for evolution are completely without foundation. The observed changes in stickleback populations today are in no way the sorts of changes needed to have changed fish into philosophers—ever.
- Sean B. Carroll is a developmental biologist at Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Wisconsin, USA. The quote comes from p. 193 of his 2005 book Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo, W.W. Norton & Co., New York. For a review see Williams, A., Evo Devo refutes neo-Darwinism, supports creation, Journal of Creation 19(3):40–44, 2005. Return to text.
- Pennisi, E., Evolutionary Biology: Changing a fish’s bony armor in the wink of a gene, Science 304(5678):1736–1739, 18 June 2004. Return to text.
- Doughton, S., Darwin’s fishes: the threespine stickleback of the Pacific Northwest, The Seattle Times, <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008746246_darwinfishes15m.html>, 15 February 2009. Return to text.
- Gee, H., Howlett, R. and Campbell, P., 15 Evolutionary Gems—A resource from Nature for those wishing to spread awareness of evidence for evolution by natural selection, <www.nature.com/evolutiongems>, 2009. Return to text.
- I.e. they are anadromous, going from the sea up rivers to spawn (as opposed to catadromous fish which go down rivers to the ocean to spawn). Return to text.
- Gibson, G., The synthesis and evolution of a supermodel, Science 307(5717):1890–1891, 2005. Return to text.
- For example, sticklebacks in deep lakes typically feed in the surface waters (on plankton) and frequently have large eyes, an upturned jaw and short, slim bodies. In shallow lakes, however, sticklebacks are primarily bottom-feeders with smaller eyes, a relatively horizontal jaw, and long, heavier bodies. Return to text.
- At the end of the extracted text was a reference to: Pennisi, E., Nature steers a predictable course, Science 287(5451):207–209, 14 January 2000. Return to text.
- Bell, M. et al., Contemporary evolution of threespine stickleback in Loberg Lake, Alaska; The Bell Lab: Bridging the gap between developmental genetics and paleontology, <http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/ee/belllab/loberg.html>, accessed 29 July 2009. Return to text.
- Bell, M.A., Aguirre, W.E., and Buck, N.J., Twelve years of contemporary armor evolution in a threespine stickleback population. Evolution 58:814-824, 2004. Return to text.
- For explanation of “anadromous”, see Footnote 5. Return to text.
- ‘Armored’ fish study helps strengthen Darwin’s natural selection theory, ScienceDaily, <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080828162604.htm>, 1 September 2008. Return to text.
- Different genes cause loss of body parts—pelvis and body armor—in similar fish, ScienceDaily, <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090604124021.htm>, 5 June 2009. Return to text.
- University of Utah press release, Pelvis has left the building, <http://unews.utah.edu/p/?r=060109-1>, 4 June 2009. Return to text.
- Colosimo, P., Hosemann, K., Balabhadra, S., Villarreal, G., Dickson, M., Grimwood, J., Schmutz, J., Myers, R., Schluter, D., Kingsley, D., Widespread parallel evolution in sticklebacks by repeated fixation of ectodysplasin alleles, Science 307(5717):1928–1933, 2005. Return to text.
- Coyne, J.A., Switching on evolution—how does evo-devo explain the huge diversity of life on Earth? Nature 435(7046):1029–1030, 2005. Return to text.
- Carroll, S., Prud’homme, B., Gompel, N., Regulating evolution, Scientific American 296(5):38–45, 2008. Return to text.
- Shubin, N. and Dahn, R., Lost and found, Nature 428(6984):703–704, 2004. Return to text.
- Shapiro, M., Marks, M., Peichel, C., Blackman, B., Nereng, K., Jonsson, B., Schluter, D. and Kingsley, D., Genetic and developmental basis of evolutionary pelvic reduction in threespine sticklebacks, Nature 428(6984):717–723, 2004. Return to text.
- Not surprisingly, the news media duly relayed the idea to the general public. One hopes that thinking people might have had cause to see the vacuity in statements like this from the BBC News: “Limb loss is implicated in a number of big steps in evolution.” Rincon, P., Genome reveals limb number recipe, BBC News, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3625235.stm>, 14 April 2004. Return to text.
- Lovinger, S., Eda controls stickleback armor—Finding reinforces idea that small genetic changes control widespread and major evolution, News from The Scientist 6(1):20050328-01, <www.biomedcentral.com/news/20050328/01>, 28 March 2005. Return to text.
- More recent research has revealed that loss of armour can be traced to different genes, not just one as first thought. Shapiro, M., Summers, B., Balabhadra, S., Aldenhoven, J., Miller, A., Cunningham, C., Bell, M., Kingsley, D., Current Biology 19(13):1140–1145, 14 July 2009; also: Different genes cause loss of body parts—pelvis and body armor—in similar fish, ScienceDaily, <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090604124021.htm>, 5 June 2009. Return to text.
- Rapid, dramatic ‘reverse evolution’ documented in tiny fish species, ScienceDaily, <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080515120759.htm>, 16 May 2008. Return to text.
- Mapes, L., Stickleback fish may teach us lessons in adaptation, The Seattle Times, <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004418397_stickleback16m.html>, 16 May 2008. Return to text.
- Kitano, J., Bolnick, D., Beauchamp, D., Mazur, M., Mori, S., Nakano, T., Peichel, C., Reverse Evolution of Armor Plates in the Threespine Stickleback, Current Biology 18(10):769–774, 20 May 2008. Return to text.
- McKinnon, J.S., Mori, S., Blackman, L., Kingsley, D., Jamieson, L., Chou, J., Schluter, D., Evidence for ecology’s role in speciation, Nature 429(6989):294–298, 2004. Return to text.
- Rundle, H., Nagel, L., Boughman, J., and Schluter, D., Natural selection and parallel speciation in sympatric sticklebacks, Science 287(5451):306–308, 14 January 2000. Return to text.
- Acroloxus Wetlands Consultancy, Stickleback Recovery Planning, <http://www.acroloxus.com/stickleback-recovery-planning.html>, accessed 6 August 2009. Return to text.
This article is very interesting in that it clarifies the reality of why changes have been and can be observed in stickleback morphology.
The whole notion of evolution from the simple to the complex demands that new information be somehow generated from nothing by blind chance.
The article makes it very clear that any observed changes are based on the survival of the fittest. Of course, the fittest ALWAYS survive the best!
What is overlooked by many evolutionist folks is the fact that Life is NOT based only on any special recipe of chemicals and mild environmental temperatures.
Rather, All of Life is based on special coded information that directs the constitution of the chemical recipe and how and when it is to be assembled into whatever life form is indicated.
I keep asking for even one single example of a true code that demonstrably has NO author, but only blind chance assembly.
Just as the old alchemists were unable to stew up some gold from cheaper stuff, scientists today will remain unable to stew up any living cells without the prerequisite code. No cutting and pasting of any existing code allowed!


School and public libraries have much more than informational resources available to youth. Whether you're addressing specific curriculum standards for a health unit or designing informal learning activities for a Saturday crafts club, electronic materials are available to faciliate learning.
Young people enjoy mobile apps because of their ease of use and portability. For instance, teens can practice for the SAT, learn Spanish, or review science videos using their smartphone.
From the very youngest children to mature young adults, there are endless opportunities for electronic materials in learning. Fish School HD teaches preschoolers letters, numbers, shapes, and colors.
Interactive Alphabet helps young children learn the alphabet through a touchable tour and interactive games (below left). With Writing Wizard, young children learn to write letters and words (below right). Talking ABC... is another favorite.
Super Why is only one of many PBS Kids learning apps available for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. In Martha Speaks Dog Party, children play vocabulary games and in Corporal Cup's Food Camp, users learn about preparing healthy recipes.
Software and Apps
Over the past decade there's been a huge turnover in instructional software publishing. Companies have been bought, sold, and rearranged. Although many companies distribute software, very few producers remain. You'll find that many software packages provide online resources, tools and lessons to go with their software. For instance, Tool Factory contains many online materials.
Rosetta Stone is a great example of software that has bridged computer platforms. One of the most popular tools for language learning, it's available in both traditional CD-ROM as well as online and on mobile apps through subscription.
Increasingly, learning resources are moving to online subscriptions. For instance A.D.A.M. Education provides award-winning resources for science and health including animations, 3D images, and quizes.
Go to A.D.A.M. Education and explore an online demo.
You'll find exciting electronic materials for children and young adults across subject areas and grade levels.
When computers first became popular as educational tools, many of the instructional resources were simple drill programs designed to help students practice skills such as math or spelling. Instructional software has evolved to include sophisticated simulations and problem-solving software.
The problem solving series Freddi Fish (shown on right) by Humongous Entertainment focuses on the adventures of a supersleuth fish who explores underwater caves, canyons, and reefs while solving problems.
Today, many companies provide their software as a download rather than on CD or DVD. For instance, Crazy Machines is a game involving creating machines. Like many of the new software packages, it's downloaded from the Internet to your hard drive. Updates are available online as well as a demo.
Think about how these resources might be integrated into your library. For instance in the public library, parents often ask for ways to help their children with study skills and academic skills.
Many learning opportunities are available on mobile devices such as iPhone, iTouch, and iPad. A growing number of educational producers are developing applications across the curriculum. These are particularly popular with home-school parents. For instance, iHomeEducator is a company that specializes in educational applications for the iPad. They produce a series of apps called iLive focusing on topics such as science, math, and language arts. The website contains lots of demonstration videos to give you a feel for the apps.
Tutorials present step-by-step instruction teaching new concepts. They are designed to provide new information along with examples and nonexamples of concepts. In addition, practice and feedback is often incorporated into the program. Tutorials work well when introducing new concepts, reviewing difficult ideas, or providing enrichment
Essay Express from Fablevision helps young people learn to create short essays through a series of fun activities. Download a free trial to see how it works.
Some tutorials are linear. In other words, they provide the same information and examples to all learners in a predetermined order. Sometimes called "electronic pageturners" they don't address the needs of individual students. On the other hand, branching software provides alternative paths through the program. Each student receives that instruction he
The strength of tutorials lies in their consistency and accuracy. They allow students to work at their own pace and provide individualized practice and feedback which is difficult to do in the traditional classroom environment.
Typing software such as the popular Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing from the Broderbund is a great example of popular tutorial software.
You've probably seen tutorials for applications software. These packages take new users step-by-step through all the skills needed to use the software. Many new computers come with tutorials to get you started using the technology.
Want to learn how to plan an instrument? The computer is patient. Many packages will provide a student with endless examples and practice to assist the student in learning the concept. For example, Guitar for Dummies is one of many software options in the Dummies series available through eMedia. The package contains more than 80 lessons on CD-ROM. These are particular popular in public libraries.
Think about both formal and information learning situations. For instance, many young people like to learn sign language on their own.
When selecting tutorials consider the instructional strategies incorporated into the program. Ask yourself:
- Does it teach the concepts like you would teach them?
- Do you like the quality and quantity of examples and nonexamples provided?
- Does the vocabulary match what you teach in class?
It can be confusing for a student to learn one approach on the computer and be expected to demonstrate a different technique in class. Is the software a good use of instructional time in your classroom?
Drill and practice software was the first widespread application of computers in the classroom. Other than fancier "bells and whistles", many of today's approaches have changed very little since the 1960s. Knowledge Adventure is well-known for their traditional drill and practice software. The Jumpstart series focuses on age-appropriate levels that allow children to progress at their own pace. Reading and Math Blasters are intended to reinforce concepts and allow opportunities for students to practice.
Sunburst was one of the first educational software companies. In Sunburst's Key Skills for Math: Basic Number Concepts (see graphic below), students develop number sense, prepare for basic operations and measurement challenges, and receive reports on their progress.
Advantage Elementary is a practical environment focusing on subjects areas such as math, English, and language learning providing lots of opportunities to practive with feedback. Programs are also available for middle school.
Although some software provides instruction in addition to practice, it is not intended to replace traditional instruction. Instead, it is intended to support classroom instruction. The strength of these programs is their ability to provide endless practice and immediate feedback to meet the individual needs of students.
Increasingly, producers are creating series of learning experiences for youth. For instance, SlateMath is a family of apps for kindergarten through grade 6.
Much of the new software for young children provides fun situations, modeling, and corrective feedback. Many of the situations let students explore for answers rather than being posed with traditional multiple choice questions on the screen. For example, the Reader Rabbit series by The Learning Company (now owned by Hougton Miffin Harcourt) is a popular way to teach and reinforce early reading and math concepts. Students search for words that begin with the "s" sound and listen to and read stories. Reader Rabbit products are available through both CD-ROM and mobile apps.
A popular series by Edmark provides students with a positive environment to explore early learning concepts. The subject specific series includes Bailey’s Book House, Millie’s Math House, Sammy’s Science House, and Trudy’s Time and Place House. Some of these are also available as apps.
The Zurk series by Soleil Software featuring titles related to a rainforest and Alaskan safari are also popular.
Go to Edmark from Riverdeep. Explore some of the software such as Bailey's Book House, Millie's Math House, Sammy's Science House, Trudy's Time & Place, Thinkin' Science, and Thinkin' Things. Try some of their free downloads.
Many software packages help students practice for exams. The Princeton Review series provides help preparing for the SAT, GMAT, LSAT, and GRE.
You’ll find much of this software in the areas of math, language arts, reading, and foreign language where practice and repetition is important in mastery learning. A growing number of companies are provide integrated learning systems that include testing, standards-aligned software, lesson places, and management systems.
An increasing number of games are being produced for hand-held devices such as the Nintendo DS. Many of these involve opportunities for practice.
A majority of the apps available focus on practicing skills. For instance, Stack the States is a fun way to learn about the shape and locations of states (see below left).
In Rocket Math, children create rockets as a reward for solving math problems and in Idioms users try to identify the idiom. An progress meter shows how a user is doing (see above center). Many practice apps use a flashcard approach such as the Kaplan TOEFL Vocabulary Flashcards (see above right).
Before selecting this type of approach to learning, make certain the program fits your philosophy of teaching. Ask yourself:
- Is it important for students to practice until mastery?
- Is overlearning really needed?
- Should the computer take the role of instructor and evaluator?
You’ll find both effective and ineffective drill and practice software. Look for the quality of the feedback. Ask yourself:
- Is positive reinforcement used?
- What happens if students fail?
- Will students get bored or frustrated using this program?
- Are students given quality corrective feedback that will help in their learning?
- Are variations in the musical, graphical, or text environment provided to keep the practice interesting?
- Is paper and pencil cheaper, easier, or better for the type of practice required?
When evaluating practice software, be aware of the screen layout. This is particularly important in spelling and math problems. Ask yourself:
- In spelling, is the word read aloud or does it flash on the screen?
- Will students be selecting the word from a list or typing the word from memory?
- In math, consider the placement of the response.
- Do students write in the tens or ones column first?
- How were they taught?
- Is the activity timed?
Simulations and Gaming
Simulations help students apply their skills to "real life" situations by providing an environment to manipulate variables, examine relationships, and make decisions. This software is generally used after initial instruction as part of application, review, or remediation.
Virtual Business and Virtual History are a suite of simulations from Knowledge Matters.
Many simulations places users in a particular time or place. For instance in the Civilization series by Aspyr Media, users participate in the golden age of exploration in the 17th and 18th centuries by building, trading, exploring, and declaring battles on land and sea.
The Learning Company's series of social studies simulations are long-time favorites including Oregon Trail (shown on right), Yukon Trail, African Trail, and Amazon Trail. With teacher guided activities, these packages can give students a sense for what life was like in an earlier time. While working through the simulation, students might write a biography of one of the characters, explore information about historical locations along the trail. Oregon Trail is available on CD-ROM, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii.
Unfortunately, it’s easy to send students to the corner of the room to “play” on the computer rather than provide specific guidance in using the simulation. Much of the value of the software is lost without teacher direction.
Another classic computer program that remains popular is Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Now available in CD-ROM, Nintendo Wii and DS, and mobile app. Many different games are available along with lesson plans and teaching guides. There are also math adventures.
The Sim series by Electronic Arts, best known for SimCity, provides challenges in particular environments such as the human body and the world of ants. Civilization by Infogrames Entertainment provides an entire world for students to create and manage.
Go to the Sims from Electronic Arts. Explore the many Sims software options.
While some simulations have a specific “mission” to accomplish, others are intended to help students explore a particular situation or environment. The Magic School Bus series by Microsoft lets students explore under the ocean, in the human body, or through the solar system. TheCluefinders series challenges students to complete adventures in reading, math, geography, and science.
Although simulations can be fun, they are often overused. In most cases, simulations should be used as a culminating activity after students have basic skills in the concepts being addressed in the software. Otherwise it is difficult for them to make informed decisions during the program. Without background skills, the simulation may become a game rather than a meaningful learning experience.
When selecting simulations, consider activities that are difficult to duplicate in the classroom other ways. For example, activities that involve dangerous situations, time consuming processes, spending money, or "impossible" projects like an interstellar flight.
There are many types of simulations. Physical simulations involve students in using objects or machines such as microscopes or airplanes. Procedural simulations involve a series of actions or steps such as medical diagnosis or frog dissection. Situational simulations involve critical incidents within particular settings such as interactions with customers. Process simulations involve decisionmaking skills related to topics such as economics, genetics, or geology. Students must choose among alternative paths.
When selecting simulations consider the amount of time you have to dedicate to the program. Some simulations can be time-consuming if done well. Also consider the grouping of students. Ask yourself:
- Will students complete the simulation as individuals, in small groups, or as a class?
Ask yourself about the content of the simulation.
- Does the simulation support the activities you are doing in the rest of your unit? In other words, does the simulation match your vocabulary and instructional approach?
- Is the content realistic enough to involve the students?
- Will they really "get into" the simulation or simply treat it like a game? For example, does it make a difference that the students aren't responsible for real money or lives.
Problem-solving software is intended to assist students in developing skills related to making effective decisions.
Although similar to a simulation, more emphasis is placed on reasoning, logic, and critical thinking. For instance, Brain Play by Scholastic provide 4 CD-ROMs and workbooks to explore thinking across the curriculum for grades 1-3.
In Go Solve, youth learn to solve math word problems.
Problem solving software generally involves a set of procedures to accomplish some type of goal. Students may identify a problem, plan an approach, gather information, develop strategies, test hypotheses, and develop plans of action during the program. In most cases, the program focuses on a core set of principles or strategies. For example, the Thinkin’ series by Edmark contains thought-provoking activities for young children. Users try to repeat a series of sounds. They can also create a series of sounds and try the patterns in the dark. The Thinkin' Science program focuses on problem solving in science. Look for features that let the child or the teacher vary the level of difficulty. Teachers can choose by level or topic.
Words and Their Stories from FableVision Learning combines vocabuary building activities with critical thinking activities. BrainCogs from FableVision Learning engages learners in an interactive multi-sensory program focusing on developing thinking, learning, and study skills.
Scholastic is known for their apps. In the I Spy series by Scholastic, young learners go on adventures and become critical observers.
Go to Scholastic Apps. Notice their wide variety of learning software. Download and try an app.
Although some of these packages are content specific, others are general problem-solving tools. For example, Tom Snyder Productions has a series of programs called Science Seekers that deal with realistic concerns, interests, and problems facing young people such as the environment.
Go to Tom Snyder Productions from Scholastic. Try one of their trials for Science Seekers. Notice that resources are provided both online and on CD.
Many of the instructional programs combine instructional activities with games, simulations, and adventures. Some even have off-computer activities. Science Court from Tom Snyder connects video and animation with hands-on activities.
One thing to watch for in educational software is the appeal to individual children. Many programs use the child's name in the program. In some software, children select whether they would like to play with a male or female playmate. Some use fictional creatures rather than human children as their main characters, so it isn't possible to tell the race or gender. It is hoped that this will make all children feel comfortable relating to the characters.
When selecting problem solving software, consider your educational objectives. Ask yourself:
- What do you want students to be able to do when they complete the problem solving experience?
- Will they be able to transfer their skills to new situations?
- How will these skills relate to specific content area goals?
Beyond learning resources, much of the software for children and young adults falls into the category of edutainment or gaming.
Think about ways to incorporate software into popular library topics. For instance, combine the softwareChessmaster from Ubisoft with books and videos about chess. Think about popular topics such as cooking. Cooking Mama is educational software for many computer and game station formats. Combine it with cook books, videos, and live library demonstrations. Music is another topic that bridges education and entertainment. Discover Bach is great multigenerational software providing games, activities, audio, and audio materials.
Keep in mind that many of the new software programs are developed for gaming stations and hand held devices rather than home computers. Before purchasing these games, be sure that you explore different types of players to determine whether there's enough interest. For instance, the wii format is gaining support. Again, look for book and game connections such as Goosebumps. You can purchase Goosebumps games for PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, wii and others.
Well-known publishers such as Discovery Education are also getting involved with the development of apps. Using a company called Phunware, they're creating apps for popular television shows such as MythBusters (shown below) as well as educational software. For instance, U.S. Geography explores regions of the United States.
Also look for movie connections. However keep in mind that the popularity of movie characters may be long or short. LucasArts has produces software and games based on popular movie characters such as Lego Indiana Jones that combines the movie and the love of Lego.
Go to Electronic Arts. Explore the range of popular electronic games for children and young adults.
Go to Legacy Interactive. Check out games based on TV shows. Check out Zoo Vet for kids.
Look for apps that make use of the mobile aspects of the technology. Keep in mind that some of these apps require a wifi connection, while others will work in airplane mode or without wifi capability.
The Dot from FableVision Learning introduces youth to the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. It includes the e-book itself along with a Meet the Author video, audio recording tool, discussion prompts, glossary, and interactive activities.
Many of the English Language Learning tools such as A+English provide audio support to improve English speaking, listening, and reading skills. As you evaluate audio-enhanced resources, look for whether the app contains control over the audio volume or other features.
Many foreign language learning resources are available such as ByKi Arabic.
Karjan Beginner is an easy-to-use music and ear training application for learning about music and music theory.
Internet Enhancements. Many of the game environments provide the option to connect to social networks such as Facebook. In Geomaster, users complete a map quiz game and can share their results on Facebook.
Read What Makes an App "Educational"? (September 8, 2010).
Read Learning: Is There An App for That? (PDF) by Cynthia Chiong & Carly Shuler (November 2010) and iLearn: A Content Analysis of the iTunes App Stores' Education Section (PDF) by Carly Shuler (November 2009).
Interactives are much more than text, graphics, audio, and video information on a Web page. They provide an engaging environment where learners can organize resources, manipulate information, and even create new content. Students aren't simply consumers of information; they become part of an active, learning experience.
Read Interactives: Dynamic Learning Environments by Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson in School Library Monthly (January 2010).
Interactives may include elements of tutorials, practice, simulation, and problem solving games for a wide range of instructional situations.
Make interactives come alive with connected, off-computer activities. Combine a hands-on activity with data collection tools.
Go to Make Your Verdict. This website explores famous outlaws from around the world. Use the interactive to learn about the court cases. Then, hold a live mock trial.
Go to NASA City. After using the interactive create your own project in the classroom.
Preparing for the Oath is a great interactive that helps people prepare for the U.S. Naturalization Test. Shouldn't everyone have this experience?
By the time students are in high school, they've seen most of the online interactives. Reach beyond the classics and introduce resources where students can draw comparisons. For instance, use the interactives from the Puke Ariki Museum in New Zealand or the National Museum of Australia. Ask students to examine an interactive and compare this experience with a current classroom topic.
- The Gold Rush: Australia. Compare the information found on this interactive with the California or Klondike Gold Rush. How are they alike and different? Go to the interactive.
- Heroes of the Air: Australia. Compare the Australian experience with flight with the American experience. Go to the Interactive.
- European Voyages: Australia. Compare this voyage to other early explorers. Go to theinteractive.
Online interactives are great for informal learning environments in public libraries. For instance, the mystery game Snapshot Adventures: Secret of Bird Island is an inexpensive download. Participants photograph birds during a cross-country adventure. Armed with a camera and a field guide, users must capture portraits of birds in close-up, in flight and perched in trees in order to complete your life list and solve the mysterious disappearance of your grandfather. Create a display with books and videos about birds. Create a bulletin board featured birds created during the game. Hold a bird watching nature walk around the library and invite the local bird club to participate.
Try Mission US. Think about how you could connect these interactives to school curriculum or public library programming. How might they be connected with literature in your library?
Begin with the following list of general websites that contain interactive for youth.
- Annenberg Learner Interactives
- BBC Schools
- Ben US Government
- The Biology Project
- Curriculum Bits
- Edsitement Interactives
- Eduplace Activities
- Get the Math
- Illuminations Math Activities
- Just for Kids
- Math Cats
- National Geographic Games
- Nobel Prize Interactives and Games
- NOVA Interactives Archive
- OMSI Activities
- Our Story - American History
- PBS Kids
- PBS Interactive Whiteboard Games
- PBS Interactives and Games
- Physics Classroom
- ReadWriteThink Interactives
- Scholastic Student Activities
- Sesame Street Games
- Smithsonian Games
- Thinkport Interactive Media
- Windows into Wonderland
Check out the Hand Symphony.
- General: PBS Learning Media
- Dance: PBS Great Performances: Free To Dance
- Music: PBS Interactives, Pandora, PBS: Strange Fruit/Protest Music, Pitch Perfect,
- Theater: Cinema
- Visual Arts: Art Interactives, George Washington Portrait, PBS Interactives, Masterpiece Me, Monet2010, MOMA's Bauhaus, Johnny Cash Project, Picasso, Popart, NGA Tools,Illustration Friday, Art Education 2.0
- Acrostic Poem, Alphabet Organizer, BioCube, CD/DVD Creator,Comic Creator,Comparison Map, Compare/Contrast, Crossword Puzzles, Diamante Poem, Doodle Splash, Drama Map, Essay Map, FlipBook, Graphic Map, Letter Generator, Persuasion Map, Profile Publisher, Timeline, 2 Circle Venn, 3 Circle Venn, Word Matrix
Go to Smithsonian Ocean. Notice the features.
- General: PBS Science Interactives, PBS LearningMedia, Nobelprize Physics/Chemistry Games, Scientific American Interactives, Edheads, National Geographic Interactives,Scholastic Interactives, Science Links, Science View
- Elementary: Arkive, Edheads, Engaging Science, KidsHealth Interactives,
- Earth and Space: Dynamic Earth, Climate Time Machine, Drinking Water, Sea Level Viewer, Geology Toolbit, Global Ice Viewer, Rock Cycle, We Choose the Moon,Volcanoes, Weather, Astronomy Interactives, Carbon Cycle Game, Dynamic Earth
- Life Science: eskeletons, American Museum of Natural History's Science Bulletins (Google Earth), Bang Biology Challenge, Digestive System, DNA, Ecology Lab, Garbage,Infectious Diseases, Kitchen Chaos, Putting DNA to Work, Unzip Your Genes, Virtual Ecosphere, Design a Panda Habitat, Diabetic Dog, EnviroMysteries, Learn Genetics,Virus or bacteria game
- Physical Science: Amusement Park Physics, Auditory Illusion, Periodic Table, Spark It,Bay Trippers, Crayon Physics, FreezeRay, Litmus Reactions
- Eco-Calculator widget
- Scales: Drought Severity, Beaufort Scale, Modified Mercalli Earthquake Intensity Scale,Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Intensity Scale, Fujita Scale
- PBS LearningMedia
- PBS Math Interactives
- Math in Daily Life
- Learning objects from WISC-Online
- Illuminations Activities
- Math in Daily Life
- Math Snacks from New Mexico State
- National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
- Wolfram Demonstrations Project
- Feed the Pig for Tweens
- Geometry 3D Shapes
- Let Roly Go
- Lure of the Labyrinth
- Manga High Games
- Math by Design
- Math Tall Tales and Short Stories
- Metric Conversions
- Mr. Nussbaum
- Rock N Roll Tour
- Scale City
- Seeing Math
- Middle School Mathematics and High School Mathematics
- Sense & Dollars
- PBS Science Interactives (Check under topics for specific areas)
- Bang Robot Challenge, Big Transport Challenge, Computers are Everywhere, Electronic Dreams, NASA City,
- How Stuff Works
- General: PBS LearningMedia
- Literature: Dante's World,
- Reading and Viewing: What Makes a Good Short Story?
- Writing and Speaking: Writing with Writers
- Games: Lord of the Flies, Shakespeare Subject to Change
- Transmedia: Inanimate Alice
Look for games and interactives to connect with books and reading.
- HarperCollins Books and Games
- Hatchette Kids
- Penguin Games
- Random House Kids
- Scholastic Games
- Turtlepond Books
- ReadWriteThink Interactives
- Acrostic Poem, Alphabet Organizer, BioCube, CD/DVD Creator, Character Trading Cards, Circle Plot Diagram, Comic Creator, Comparison Map, Compare/Contrast,Crossword Puzzles, Diamante Poem, Doodle Splash, Drama Map, Essay Map, FlipBook,Fractured Fairy Tales, Graphic Map, Hero's Journey, Letter Generator, Letter Poem,Literary Elements Map, Mystery Cube, Persuasion Map, Plot Diagram, Profile Publisher,StoryMap, Timeline, 2 Circle Venn, 3 Circle Venn, Word Matrix,
- General: PBS LearningMedia, Conflict Map Game, Nuclear Weapons Game, Red Cross Game
- Civics and Government: PBS Interactives, Democracies in the World, Architect's Virtual Capitol, Top Secret America, To Lie or Not Lie
- Culture, Sociology & Psychology: PBS Interactives, Autism Quiz, Mind Lab, This Emotional Life, The Responsibility Project, Brainstretcher, Photofit Me, Photographic Memory Test,
- Economics: PBS Interactives, Trade Theory Game, Economics
- Geography: PBS Interactives, National Geographic, BBC: Dimensions
- U.S. History: Colonial people, PBS Interactives (check topics for more), John Smith Historical Map Interactive, Freedom Riders, History Games, Historical and Cultural Contexts
- World History: PBS Nova, PBS Interactives (check topics for more), 19th Century France,Out My Window, Tiziano Project, Collapse, Great Thinkers, Industrial Revolution in Britain, Middle Ages, Renaissance
- DocsTeach from National Archives
- Life Timeline
- National Archives: Create a Movie
- Propaganda Filmaker
PE and Health
Check out the Hand Symphony.
- Medline Health Games
- Interactive Health Tutorials
- Nobel Prize: Medicine Games
- PBS LearningMedia
- PBS Health and Fitness Interactives
- Games: About High Blood Pressure, BetheBeat, BMI Teen Calculator, HandsOnlyCPR,Longevity Game, The Brain & Addiction, Making the Change, Sara's Quest, Water, Bone Up on Milk, Calcium Quiz, Heart360, Personal Health Tools, MyLifeCheck, Teen Beat: Are You Active Enough?
- Physical Education: Fitness Partner
- Health Check Tools
- InteliHealth Tools
- Your Disease Risk
- WebMD Tools and Quizzes
- Stopwatch tool and determine targe heart rate, find percent of a number, and round g numbers.
- Use fitness tools such as BMI for Teens (CDC) - Option 1, Calories Burned Running - Option 1, Running Calculator - Option 1,
- Access, Analyze, Act
- Your Life Your Money
- Test Your Money Smarts
- Virtual Stock Exchange Games
Financial Calculators and Conversions
- Currency Conversion - Option 1, Option 2
- Inflation Conversion - Best Option (formulas)
- Income Calculator - Option 1,
- Interest Calculator - Easy Option
- Money Counter - Option 1,
- Monthly Payments Calculator - Option 1
- Payroll - Best Option (formulas)
- Phone Bill Calculator - Option 1,
- Savings Estimator - Option 1
- Sales Tax Calculator - Option 1
- Tip Calculator - Option 1
- Content: Occupational Outlook Handbook
- General Resources; CareerOneStop,
- Services: CareerBuilder, Monster
- General Games: OnlineLanguages, BabLa
- Language Songs: Languages Online
- Language Training: Vocabulary
- Chinese Language: BBC, Chinese Module, Zon
- English Language: English Module, Freerice
- French Language: BBC, Tex's French Grammar, French Module
- German Language: BBC, German Module
- Italian: BBC, Italian Module
- Japanese: BBC
- Spanish Language: BBC, Asisehace, Don Quijote, Mundo Ninos, Cuentos y Leyendas,Nueva Biblioteca, Spanish Language, ToxTown
Website Ads and Evaluation
- Ad Decoder
- CoCo's AdverSmarts
- Don't Buy It: Get Media Smart
- Hints about Print
- Teacher Tap: Evaluation
- You Are Here
Family, Consumer Science, Health
Child Development: Childhood Milestones
Nutrition and Foods: AllRecipes,
Home Care and Design: RepairClinic,
- Clothing: Finding a Bra that Fits
- Children Development: Baby's Growth Timeline, Childhood Immunization, Children Development Timeline, Childproofing Your Home, Taking Care of an Infant, Pregnancy ID Card,
- Health: About High Blood Pressure, BetheBeat, BMI Teen Calculator, HandsOnlyCPR,Longevity Game, The Brain & Addiction, Making the Change, Sara's Quest, Water,Heart360, Personal Health Tools, MyLifeCheck, Teen Beat: Are Your Active Enough?
- Family Living: Depression Self-Assessment, Fuel Consumption - Option 1, Option 2, Option 3
- Nutrition: Virtual Herb Garden, Meal Planning Tools, Bone Up on Milk, Calcium Quiz,Nutritional Values.
Select an interactive. Design an assignment that combines an online interactive with a physical activity. Spend some time designing an assignment or programming activity with physical, virtual, and relevant elements into a content-connected activity that involves critical and creative thinking.


Scissors cut paper.
Paper wraps rock.
Rock blunts scissors.
These sentences are not only the ‘unspoken rules’ of the game; they are the game.
The players also understand other unspoken rules. Let us consider them as a ‘rule of three’.
(i) Each sentence must contain two items and an action.
(ii) The order of words shows which item is acting (‘the subject’) and which is acted upon (‘the object’).
(iii) The rules alone are not enough; the meaning must make sense to both players.
As we speak, we create ‘story’. We do this using the unspoken rules of our language (the grammar and syntax) to ‘make sense’ of our words and those of others. The rules used are specific to each language; there is no underlying structure of language (a ‘universal grammar’) as Chomsky has suggested. Instead, a universal principle applies; all languages, even the simplest of creoles, quickly evolve their own patterns of grammar and syntax. These patterns produce the attributes of ‘story’, the structure which allows a language to work.
Stories have a structure.
Stories should have a beginning, a middle and an end…
But not necessarily in that order
(Jean Luc Godard)
The mimed game of ‘rock, paper, scissors’ tells the story of how these objects interact. The sentences build relationships between the objects. The rules of grammar and syntax allow us to organise the words into sequences that show what these relationships are. We use this structure to code meaning into our speech.
As we learn words, so we ‘imprint’ the structure of our language. We also acquire common expressions, such as sayings and other phrases or ideas with metaphorical meanings (e.g. characters from fairy tales) that are understood by our cultural group.
Many songbirds and other animals also produce imprinted learned calls made of ordered sequences (phrases) of sounds. We recognise these repeating patterns in the speech we hear and ‘imprint’ as children. The differences in our childhood learning environments give rise to variations in the way we produce sounds, such as regional accents.
Speaking involves learning and repeating these sound-generating movement patterns, along with other movements such as facial expressions and hand gestures. In this sense, our speech is formed from a set of stylised vocal and non-vocal movement patterns. We learn this ‘dance’ from our cultural group.
Most of our words, phrases, sayings, metaphors and inferences result from inherited patterns in our cultural context. This ‘local effect’ has also been observed in ‘dialects’ (local pattern variations) of birdsong.
Stories ‘move us’ physically and through emotions.
Movement is part of all types of communication. In the course of the action (the verb) within a speech phrase, the ‘subject’ (the ‘character’ which is active) moves between physical states as a result of having made this action.
We understand that this change has taken place through the emotional shift we associate with this change. The very word ‘emotion’ contains the Latin root movere, to move, and the prefix ‘e-’ means ‘out of’.
We code our words with symbolic meaning by tagging our understanding of what they represent with how we feel. Our words are therefore symbols that contain both semantic and emotional content. This content is conveyed into our speech through the pitch, timbre, tone and pace of our voice, as well as the rhythm and stress patterns within our speech.
Vital as this is, usually we are not conscious of this musical content, known as ‘prosody’, which transmits emotional information. Beyond ourselves, we can also discern and infer emotional cues in the involuntary vocal calls and facial expressions (‘facial gestures’) of other primates.
Producing speech with mouths, hands, or even through remote means such as writing, involves movement. Indeed, the same neural pathways, involving the so-called ‘mirror neurons’, are activated both when we either think of or hear a word, and when we encounter the experience which the word symbolises. This neural network extends into the emotional centres of our brains, allowing us to code the meaning of words by relating emotions to our experiences.
Spoken words are rhythmical ‘vocal gestures’ made with our eating apparatus (the mouth and throat), and are coordinated with the rhythm of our breathing. Controlling these movements involves coupling and modifying rhythmic outputs from multiple Central Pattern Generator circuits.
These ‘neural metronomes’ generate autonomous rhythmic nerve impulses that drive repetitive movements like chewing and walking. Higher brain centres initiate and coordinate these signals, integrating them via the basal ganglia into ordered sequences of finely controlled motor movements. The order, pace and musicality of our speech results from combining sets of these neural patterns with pattern modulations and interruptions, in a way which works with the rules that structure our language.
Our body movements, like our language use and accents, follow patterns that we learn as children from ‘our tribe’. The unique rules and patterns of a language, like its vocabulary, are indicators of the cultural content and perspective they express. A speaker and listener must agree the meaning of the words and phrase structure they use. Communication then, involves creating ‘story’ using movements which are simultaneously a whole body and a whole society activity.
Stories have something to say.
In the game ‘scissors, rock, paper’, both players understand the meaning of the symbolic gestures used and the relationship between them. Their interaction is understood as an event in time and space. In language, we ‘tell stories’ using ordered words and phrases in order to convey an intended meaning.
‘Scissors cut paper’
The sentence describes an event which may have happened, is happening or could happen. An object acts upon another object in time and space, until there is a resolution. The objects are represented as gestures. Considering words as gestures in sound, when we hear or read a simple sentence from the game, we internally reproduce (‘represent’) the associated objects, actions and representing gestures in our mirror neuron circuits along with the experiences they symbolise. The mirror system, associated with areas of motor activity, allows us to revisit the embodied experience of movements associated with these ideas.
We perceive the word symbols and emotional content of speech as patterns. Mammals may be particularly competent at recognising patterns and edges, but our pattern recognition ability is exceptional. When we speak, we use sound pattern motifs (words) coded with symbolic ideas, and then order these into sequences.
Forming our words and phrases involve making a series of movement patterns. Our speech and body posture reveals how we understand ourselves. As our children progress in learning to speak, they reveal the progress of their capacity to take charge of their thoughts. The story that emerges through our spoken words reveals what we think and how we feel. We craft this narrative from the meaning we assign to our observations, and use music and movement to mirror this back to ourselves and others. How could this story mechanism have begun, and how has it evolved?
Did our stories begin with singing?
Amongst the apes, our ability to sing is unique. The musicality of our speech has many components, including variations in rhythm, phrasing, pitch and tone.
Speech is inherently rhythmical. Indeed in English, we even shift the stress of a word to maintain that rhythm. Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy has suggested that syntax evolved from the same basic (open-close) ‘oscillating motor’ mechanism by which we also organise our articulated sounds into ‘consonant-vowel-consonant’ syllables. Alternation is discernible in the rhythm of speech, and appears also in word order, such as the object-action-object structure of ‘paper wraps rock’.
Every human culture has some form of music with a beat. Rhythm determines how we perceive and process musical information. Syllables and small clauses have a bimodal rhythmic structure which helps to articulate the sounds within the phrase; for example:
‘PAper wraps ROCK’.
Asif Ghazanfar suggests that rhythmic communication is found throughout the higher primates, in the form of behaviours such as chimpanzee pant-hoots and rhythmical facial gestures such as lipsmacks. This implies that a similar bimodal rhythm mechanism was present in the communication behaviours of our shared ancestors.
William Tecumseh Fitch suggests that speaking began with prosody; he proposes that our hominin ancestors’ ‘proto-language’ may have initially used intonation (controlling the pitch of sounds) rather than word-based syllables. Many current world languages are based on tones rather than word forms.
Fitch argues that the vocal control which allowed our ancestors to sing may have been later ‘exapted’ to produce such pitch-based proto-syllables, and that articulation of vowel and consonant sounds came later as a means of expanding the diversity of this sound repertoire. This makes a plausible case for the origins of our ability to articulate syllables arising from song.
The human male larynx descends during puberty, giving a deeper formant (resonant frequency) which enables us to distinguish male from female voices mainly by their pitch and tone. In contrast to most songbirds, our ability to speak (and sing) is balanced between the sexes. This suggests that however human speech arose, it was not primarily to attract mates, as is the case in most songbirds and vocal mammals.
This may be true, but David Puts and colleagues have found that the pitch of a man’s voice alters in the presence of other males, inferring an element of between-male competition in the establishment of dominance. The second descent of the human male larynx may therefore have evolved as a cue to signal the individual’s status within the tribe, or to defend territorial boundaries.
In addition, low sounds travel further. Deeper male voices may have proven more effective at coordinating the tribe when hunting in low visibility conditions such as dense forest or over long distances in the open savannah.
(iii) Musical phrasing
In English, we use variations in relative pitch to shape our phrases and code emotional meanings. These ‘melodies’ overlay variations in pitch on to the rhythmic patterns within words. Shifts in pitch give stress and emphasis, so shaping these phrases. This musicality is crucial to reveal our intended meaning to others, while intonation makes it easier for a listener to distinguish the endings of our phrases. As children we learn to make these musical (prosodic) sound patterns alongside our capacity to articulate the vowels and consonants.
Both young songbirds and human children have sensitive periods of vocal learning that requires social feedback from adults. Like human babies, songbirds have a ‘babbling’ phase where they try out sounds prior to rehearsing and imprinting their adult call. These birds build phrased sequences from repeating syllable elements, punctuated with explicit pauses.
Repeated elements may add emphasis, although modifying the order does not seem to alter the meaning of the call, which advertises their suitability as a mate. Sequence variations may however serve to identify individuals within the flock for some species, such as starlings.
Steven Brown shows that the most complex song forms in birds and in other primates arises amongst monogamous pairs of duetting tropical songbirds and gibbons. These calls appear to be significant in the defence of territories and maintaining social bonds. He notes that courtship calls are rare to non-existent in our sub-clade of the higher primates; neither chimps nor bonobos vocalise complex learned song. Although in theory their vocal tract anatomy would enable them to produce some vowel and consonant sounds, no chimps have ever done so.
In contrast, territorial calls are found throughout the entire primate clade. A deeper male voice may permit a means to distinguish authority and hierarchy within the tribe, and may have been influential in ‘vocal grooming’ amongst our hominin ancestors.
In order to produce sequences of symbolically coded, articulated sounds, however, our ancestors must have been capable of organising their proposed actions into sequences. Neurological studies show that organising our thoughts into sequences requires a high degree of brain connectivity.
This would mean that the developmental shift in the degree of connectedness between neurons that allowed hominins to enact organised sequences of behaviours, may have provided the circuitry that was later ‘exapted’ for language syntax.
How did our storytelling behaviour evolve?
Other animals’ behaviours are driven broadly by instinctual need. Whilst humans do operate at this level, what is distinctive about our behaviour is the capacity to produce actions to achieve an intended purpose. Our speech is unique because we can intentionally use it to order our thoughts and tasks in time.
At the cognitive level, this is in essence the same type of task as ordering a sequence of actions using manual tools to achieve a goal. We use words as tools to share information by constructing an idea before we can share this information with others.
In both cases, we construct the tasks in a sequence, formulating the goal (the completed manual task or the delivering of the information) before we begin. This structuring is an active process that takes place even for a remembered event.
As we revisit our memories, we include only certain details in our narrative; these details trigger pattern recognition in our own thinking (and that of our listener). This processing and editing of information is the essence a structuring of patterned information. The establishment of a ‘narrative’ (a sequence of events) applies equally to using a manual tool and ‘telling a ‘story’.
Our repertoire of stories, folk tales and fairy tales are amongst the tools by which we share culturally what is important to us and how we think. Using story in this way reveals patterns; we discern deeper meanings and lessons from the presented information, which is a mechanism to share understanding.
Being able to project different interpretations to evaluate cues from the environment provide a means for assessing risk, and resulting in different types of behaviour choices. The means to effectively evaluate a cue such as rustling in the undergrowth as either an opportunity (a potential food item such as a small mammal) or a threat (a wolf) would quickly prove a selectable advantage.
Many animals recognise cues which index the presence of another animal (e.g. a scent, or footprints). It is easy to imagine how our ancestors’ capacity to evaluate these cues strategically using their ‘thinking tools’ would quickly change their chances of survival.
Being able to share these thoughts and coordinate their responses with others would radically shift the ecology of the tribe into a mode where sensory awareness and experience held and understood collectively by the ‘quorum’.
Words then are tools that define boundaries between ideas, and help to structure our collective thinking. The making and using of tools requires the execution of sequences of patterns, in the form of intentional fine motor movements.
Philip Lieberman suggests that our upright posture may have pre-adapted our ancestors for the enhanced motor control needed for tool-making, tool using and speech. Walking itself is a simple patterned, repetitive movement.
Our basic ‘walking instinct’ initially activates a Central Pattern Generator circuit driving movement in all four limbs. Our newborns’ initial locomotion usually involves crawling. The subcortical basal ganglia of the language network in the brain also regulate the muscles controlling our upright posture.
Walking, and other sequences of behaviour such as speech, are learned gradually over years. Heel strike, which marks efficient bipedal locomotion, takes years to develop.
Learning to use words as symbols requires repetition of the word and an internal coding of it as a pattern motif. The characteristic of any pattern is that it contains repeating elements, and that repetition stimulates our memory to the degree of the strength (i.e. our familiarity with) that pattern. The sequence of word order determined by a language’s grammar and syntax provides in essence a framework for creating patterns.
This ability to associate gestures with ideas and order them into sequences is present to a limited degree in our primate relatives. Wild bonobos combine call types together into longer mixed sequences upon finding a food cache. Other tribe members understand information about the quality of this find from these different sound sequences, and respond with appropriate types of foraging behaviour.
Higher primates have a mirror neuron network which is triggered by facial expressions and grasping movements associated with obtaining food, although they cannot mirror mimed actions.
Why do we tell stories?
Communication involves transmitting and receiving a message that is understood the same way by sender and recipient. Human speech is the same, but is driven by the intention to share a meaning. As well as a repertoire of pre-arranged signals with agreed meanings, we need to have something to say. We tell stories therefore to communicate an intention. This means that our ancestors must have felt compelled to convey the contents of their thoughts to others.
We speak to communicate the contents of our minds. It is perhaps then the patterns of our thinking, rather than our speaking, which are the truly unique feature of human communication. Our ability to combine ideas into a syntactic structure and create new associations demarcates a boundary between our thinking and that of our closest relatives, the chimps.
Captive chimpanzees and bonobos can be taught to understand some signed words or use pictorial symbols, and the most accomplished of these learners can combine certain of their vocabulary into ‘small clause’ forms, for example ‘agent + action’ or ‘action + object’.
Ljiljana Progovac argues that these ‘small clauses’ are the basic units of word combination that all languages share. She proposes these forms as the ‘proto-syntax’ from which our more complex structures have evolved. If this is correct, then this suggests that the most basic components of our ability to combine words into language were present in our common ancestors with chimpanzees.
The way we acquire language reveals the process by which we develop a sense of self-identity. Our children’s awareness of ‘self’ and ‘other’ is expressed in their language, although it is not dependent upon it. An understanding that others share similar experiences (known as a ‘theory of mind’) develops gradually during their first five years. The ability to organise words into small clauses such as ‘scissors cut’, or ‘cut paper’ appears in human children at between 1 and 2 years of age.
The more accomplished language learning primates, such as the bonobo Kansi, associate sounds and symbols with objects and even seemed to understand abstract concepts such as ‘happy’. Bonobos at the Georgia State University primate language research project use a lexigram (symbols board) to create two-word small clauses. None of these animals, however, has ever attempted a self-description such as ‘I think…’, ‘I feel…’ or ‘I want…’ This ability develops in human children between 2 and 3 years of age. The bonobo’s use of human symbol-based language, in contrast, arrests at a stage roughly equivalent to a human child of around two years.
All young mammals play, but perhaps the most intriguing part of human communication is that play is incorporated into our information sharing. The simple story of scissors, rock and paper is fiction in that the items do not need to exist to be ‘present’ and interact in the game. Fiction captivates our attention and holds it far more easily than factual narratives.
Within a story, our thoughts project information based upon past experience into the future, allowing us to ‘play out’ the actions in drama in mime before attempting the task. Studies on primate mirror neuron responses report that these animals typically do not respond to such mimed gestures.
The act of telling stories shifts our ecology into the ‘cognitive niche’; we operate in a world of endlessly combined and recombined ideas. Emotions are the source of meaning for these ideas. Perhaps our evolved story mechanism can be considered as a means of evolved emotional language, conveying higher orders of meaning and inferred understanding to our experiences. This combining of ideas, putting one into another to make a new meaning which is different from that of the ideas on their own, is known as ‘recursion’. It is considered to be a defining characteristic of our capacity for creativity in our thoughts.
In summary then, our ‘story mechanism’ translates thoughts into actions, and enables us to bring new things and events into being. Coding information in story form makes it possible to share past experiences, ‘reword’ them into new sequences, and by communicating with others, project these imaginings into the future.
It is clear that our hominin ancestors developed neural pathways that allowed them to copy and learn movement sequences, including vocal movements, and used these skills to share their intentions with others. What is less clear is how they came to understand that others had minds like their own, prompting their yearning for connection.
Whatever its cause, however, an expansion of conscious awareness drove our ancestors to share their ideas and understanding, and to begin to tell each other their story.
- Our speech comprises a complexity of coded sounds that we are able to order and organise. This organisation has ‘rules’ that a listener can use to perceive and translate what they hear into meaning.
- Using speech-based language allows us to put our thoughts in an order, and then control our actions in a defined and directed way. Neurologically there is no difference between using manual tools and word tools in an ordered sequence; the brain codes both of these as a set of gesture-based motor movements.
- Some birds and other animals are able to learn complex sound sequence patterns, mostly as a display signal for sexual selection. In contrast, human speech and other forms of communication are gender balanced. We use our communication sequences to bond socially and carry and transmit collectively held ideas.
- The behavioural choices of other animals and birds is the result of reactions to their circumstances. Humans put their thinking into words, and voice their intentions.
- There is nothing biologically unique about the behaviours that allow us to speak. Our language function suggests instead a greater level of connection between these abilities than is found in other animals. This has allowed us to assume fine control over our movements that produce vocalisations and other actions, and also by implication our thoughts. This may be a result of the physical changes needed to allow our ancestors to walk upright.
- What human language enables us to express is a sense of self-identity; it is a means of defining ‘our story’.
Text copyright © 2015 Mags Leighton. All rights reserved.
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