Variation Is the Human Norm: teacher key

Being Different, grade 12 edition, written for 12th grade and up. Human beings vary in genes, fingerprints, eyes, hands, families, languages and abilities. The story looks at how schools, laws, sports and research have dealt with that variation.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. Which pair of people wrote to the journal Nature in 1880 about fingerprints?
   • Henry Faulds and William James Herschel (answer)
   • Charles Barbier and Louis Braille
   • Ludwig Guttmann and Gerald Ford
2. According to fall 2022 data, which group of students most often spent 80 percent or more of the school day in general classes?
   • Students with specific learning disabilities, at 76 percent
   • Students with speech or language impairments, at 89 percent (answer)
   • Students served under IDEA overall, at 61 percent
3. In the Asch experiments, what share of participants never conformed?
   • 27 percent
   • One-third
   • 24 percent (answer)
4. What can be inferred from the school-district study about including students with disabilities in general classrooms?
   • It lowered the scores of other students
   • It did not hurt the scores of other students (answer)
   • It had no effect on graduation rates
5. What does the word upstander mean in the book?
   • Someone who sees bullying and steps in or speaks up (answer)
   • Someone who watches bullying and says nothing
   • Someone who is bullied and defended by peers

Words

• genome: complete DNA set
• braille: raised dot writing
• conformity: matching the group
• empathy: sensing feelings
• upstander: speaks up