Dinaledi Chamber: Dropping in on Distant Ancestors
China Plus profiles the collaboration between the University of Witwatersrand and Perot Museum of Nature and Science that led to their Dinaledi Chamber Virtual Reality (VR) app. The free download allows users to embark on a journey to spend time with some of humanity’s most recently discovered ancestors, Homo naledi. Located in the Rising Star cave system, part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage site in South Africa, the Dinaledi Chamber has only been physically accessed by twenty people. With this new app, anyone with a Cardboard compatible device can join this privileged few via a mix of 360º video of the cave and detailed VR projections of the fossils found within.
Try the App for Yourself
If you would like to explore Dinaledi Chamber yourself, you can learn more about this app and download it for free via the Experience Catalogue.
Assignment Idea: Paleontology Effects on Biology Applications
Description
This example has a high potential to be used for courses focused on evolution and ecology such as BIOL 110 or BIOL 220W. For this assignment, students explore the cave to learn more about what paleontologists have done in the Dinaledi Chamber to excavate human fossils. Either as part of an in-class or out-of-class assignment, students answer a series of questions to ensure accountability along with prompting questions for discussion or a possible presentation to relate the information to course content.
Questions for accountability may include:
- The paleontologists who explored this area were able to excavate around how many fossils?
- While exploring the cave, what four bones are you able to find and mark?
- Given the tight passageway to get to the chamber, up to how many people were able to excavate at a time?
Questions for relatability may include:
- What new appreciation do you have for the field of paleontology?
- What is the significance of the findings of fossils for the study of human evolution?
Subject Areas
Biology (Evolution), Geosciences, History
Deliverables
- identification of objects in the VR experience + description
- a 3D model that is similar to one of the objects in the VR experience (optional: 3D printed model)
- creation of a narrative of a day in the life of a paleontologist exploring the cave with a focus on its relevance to the exploration of human evolution
- storyboard of this narrative as a visual interpretation
- presentation to class (optional: including 3D model)
- short, research-based blog post about paleontology related to human evolution with examples from the VR experience