Evolution of The Human Hand

I attended a research seminar on Research by Design at AHO (The Oslo School of Architecture and Design) on the 4-th of December. The theme itself was not so relevant for my research, but was for me personally. Sometimes during the presentations, I caught my thoughts on their way to somewhere… One can blame on my associations that from time to time spin off in the unknown directions... and take me with them.

Professor Michael Weinstock spoke about evolution, and professor Michael Hensel showed some beautiful extremely enlarged images of plants, and there I was thinking about children’s biological predispositions for learning. I was thinking about evolution of human kind: how the form of the human hand had made it possible to use tools, something that made us different from the most of other animals. Being able to handle physical object demanded more brain activity and advanced thinking. With being able to walk on two feet, two hands were free to use also during walking (this was important before hands free telephone accessories). This brought me further in thinking about importance of physical environment, and use (or misuse) of tools and other artefact in our learning. I see clearly now where this was going! My associations were taking me strait to my PhD-project: to children’s handling of physical three dimensional materials. I might have to look into evolutional studies of human beings to find explanations for “learning through hands”?