Big History

Description:

    Big History is the modern, scientific origin story, based on the best evidence that scientists and historians have compiled to date. It tells the story of the Universe from the Big Bang to the present, a time span of 13.8 billion years. This course deals with the understanding of key and historical scientific concepts and facts engaging in historical analysis using the theories and practices from multiple disciplines, toward an integrated and interdisciplinary understanding of the history of the universe.

Overview:

    Big History examines our past, explains our present, and imagines our future. It's a story about us. An idea that arose from a desire to go beyond specialized and self-contained fields of study to grasp history as a whole. This growing, multi-disciplinary approach is focused on high school students, yet designed for anyone seeking answers to the big questions about the history of our Universe.

    The Big History Project is a joint effort between teachers, scholars, scientists, and their supporters to bring a multi-disciplinary approach to knowledge to lifelong learners around the world.

    Big History is an academic discipline that examines history from the Big Bang to the present. Big History resists specialization and searches for universal patterns or trends. It examines long time frames using a multidisciplinary approach based on combining numerous disciplines from science and the humanities and explores human existence in the context of this bigger picture. It integrates studies of the cosmos, Earth, life, and humanity using empirical evidence to explore cause-and-effect relations, and is taught at universities and primary and secondary schools often using web-based interactive presentations.

    Historian David Christian has been credited with coining the term "Big History" while teaching one of the first such courses at Macquarie University. An all-encompassing study of humanity's relationship to cosmology and natural history has been pursued by scholars since the Renaissance, and the new field, Big History, continues such work (Wikipedia, n.d.).

Read More:
(1) Big History Project

(2) What Is the Big Bang Theory? | Space

(3) Star Facts: The Basics of Star Names and Stellar Evolution

(4) 7 Theories on the Origin of Life | Live Science

(5) Key Components of Civilization | National Geographic Society

Watch:
(1) What Is Big History? | Unit 1: Big History Project | OER Project

     by OER Project [6:46] | YouTube

(2) The history of our world in 18 minutes - David Christian

      by TED-Ed [17:40] | YouTube

(3) Introduction To Thresholds of Increasing Complexity | Unit 2: Big History Project | OER Project

      by OER Project [2:15] | YouTube

(4) Origins of the Universe 101 | National Geographic

      by National Geographic [5:49] | YouTube

(5) Human Origins 101 | National Geographic

      by National Geographic [3:47] | YouTube

Topics:

INTRODUCTION

1. Introduction to Big History
        a. Chronometric Revolution
        b. Origin Stories
        c. Complexity
        d. Eight (8) Thresholds of Increasing Complexity

THE UNIVERSE

2. The Big Bang
        a. Early Cosmologies
        b. Scientific Challenges and Changing Views
        c. The Origin of the Universe According to the Big Bang Cosmology

3. Stars and Elements
        a. How Stars Were Formed?
        b. Creation of New Chemical Elements
        c. The Importance of Chemistry

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM AND EARTH

4. Solar System and Earth
        a. The Nebular Theory of the Origin of the Solar System
        b. The Formation of Earth
        c. The Structure of the Earth
        d. Earth's Timeline and History
        e. Shaping the Earth's Surface

LIFE

5. The Emergence of Life
        a. Basic Characteristics of Life
        b. Seven Characteristics of Living Things
        c. Theories About the Origin of Life
        d. Darwin's Theory of Evolution
        e. Lamarck's Theory of Evolution
        f. Brief History of Life on Earth

HUMANS

6. Humans and Collective Learning
        a. A Brief Account of Human Evolution
        b. Homo Sapiens and Early Human Migration
        c. The Prehistoric Ages: How Humans Lived Before Written Records
        d. Paleolithic Societies
        e. Foraging

7. Agriculture and Civilization
        a. The Rise of Agriculture
        b. The First Cities and States Appear
        c. Ways of Knowing: Agriculture and Civilization
        d. What Should We Eat?

THE FUTURE

8. Modern Revolution
        a. Expansion
        b. Exploration and Interconnection
        c. The Columbian Exchange
        d. Commerce and Collective Learning
        e. The Industrial Revolution
        f. The Anthropocene
        g. The Modern World
        h. The Future

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