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Contribution to Book
Teaching Threshold 6: The Rise of Homo sapiens
Teaching Big History (2014)
  • Richard B. Simon
  • Mojgan Behmand
  • Thomas Burke
  • Esther Quaedackers, University of Amsterdam
  • Seohyung Kim
  • Kiowa Bower
  • Neal Wolfe
  • James B. Cunningham
  • Cynthia Taylor
  • Martin Anderson
  • J. Daniel May
  • Philip Novak
  • Debbie Daunt
  • Jaime Castner
  • Ethan Annis
  • Amy E Gilbert
  • Anne Reid
  • Suzanne Roybal
  • Alan Schut
  • Cynthia Brown
  • Harlan Stelmach
Abstract
Big History is a new field on a grand scale: it tells the story of the universe over time through a diverse range of disciplines that spans cosmology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and archaeology, thereby reconciling traditional human history with environmental geography and natural history.Weaving the myriad threads of evidence-based human knowledge into a master narrative that stretches from the beginning of the universe to the present, the Big History framework helps students make sense of their studies in all disciplines by illuminating the structures that underlie the universe and the connections among them.Teaching Big History is a powerful analytic and pedagogical resource, and serves as a comprehensive guide for teaching Big History, as well for sharing ideas about the subject and planning a curriculum around it. Readers are also given helpful advice about the administrative and organizational challenges of instituting a general education program constructed around Big History. The book includes teaching materials, examples, and detailed sample exercises.This book is also an engaging first-hand account of how a group of professors built an entire Big History general education curriculum for first-year students, demonstrating how this thoughtful integration of disciplines exemplifies liberal education at its best and illustrating how teaching and learning this incredible story can be transformative for professors and students alike.
Keywords
  • big history,
  • homo sapiens,
  • history of man
Disciplines
Publication Date
December 23, 2014
Editor
Richard B. Simon, Mojgan Behmand, and Thomas Burke
Publisher
University of California Press
ISBN
978-0520283558
Citation Information
Richard B. Simon, Mojgan Behmand, Thomas Burke, Esther Quaedackers, et al.. "Teaching Threshold 6: The Rise of Homo sapiens" Oakland, CATeaching Big History (2014)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/cynthia_taylor1/2/