Big History
Big History Online High School Course
COURSE LENGTH:
Semester (15 Sessions)
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Big History is a course designed to expose students to the past, present and future wonders and mysteries of the world we inhabit across space and time. It thematically explores five selectively representative influential events and moments throughout history: the Big Bang, life on earth, the birth of humanity, the rise of the modern world, and the increasingly complex future humans are headed toward. The course uses interactive mini-lectures, class discussions, and short in-class activities (analytical and creative). It also exposes students to relevant excerpted readings, digital video and audio clips focused on key theories, concepts, methods, and representations of life that have been used throughout history and across cultures to interpret History. Such an interdisciplinary, inclusive framework also enables students to better understand critical forces, conditions, beliefs, and processes that have created, sustained, and revolutionized life.
Please note the course does not require the student to believe in a forced set of ideas. As burgeoning scholars in their own right, students reserve the right to cultivate their own voice, respectfully critique and ask questions, probe facts, make connections and find intersections with the topics in focus—as a fundamental part of the learning enterprise. The syllabus is subject to change.
Essential Questions:
What is History?
What is Life?
What does it mean to be Human?
Who am I in the universe and the worlds I inhabit?
Skills:
Develop critical thinking skills, taking into consideration methods used by the natural and social sciences.
Develop critical reading skills, taking into consideration methods used by the natural and social sciences.
Be exposed to a variety of diverse, inclusive thinkers, beliefs, interpretations, and understandings.
Course Goals:
To understand key, influential forces, conditions, beliefs, and process- es that have created, maintained, sustained, and revolutionized life throughout History (the Big Bang, the birth of humanity, the rise of the modern world, and the future).
To understand and evaluate different approaches to framing, repre- senting and interpreting the five historical moments and events.
To understand the importance of the study of Big History from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining the natural and social scienc- es; and to apply this understanding to contemporary life and history in the making.
To recognize the multiple ways human identities are constructed and expressed throughout history.