Big History

"Big History" was not a term I was familiar with. Before researching online what Big History is, I brain stormed what I thought it might be. My main thought was that Big History has something to do with big events throughout the history of the world, which shaped or changed our world in an innovative way. I quickly learned although this is not incorrect, it's not exactly correct either.

The main website which caught my attention was; https://www.bighistoryproject.com/home

The Big History Project describes itself as examining our past, explaining our present, and imagining our future. This approach allows the Big History Project to go beyond specialized historical studies, and rather see how all of the world's and universe's histories intertwined and related. The website claimed this project is for mainly high school students who are interested in learning the history of the universe, but is not limited to just high school students, but rather anyone seeking information about the universe's history. 

It was interesting to learn about on this website, was the thresholds that are listed on the site. I found them pretty insightful and kind of a quick way to see a bigger picture of what Big History is all about. Starting with the big bang the progressions are pretty intriguing to learn about. The thresholds are as follows;

1. The Big Bang (the beginning of the beginning)
2. Stars light up
3. New chemical elements (I understood this as the natural elements of the world doing their thing)
4. Earth & Solar system
5. Life on earth
6. Collective Learning
7. Agriculture

I do believe this is a very logical way of teaching history. I also do believe that this a very broad overview of history and although I think it would be very informational, I feel like some people may not be interested in such broad topics. Personally I like the Big History concept, but I can see it being less attractive because of how broad the subject is. The Big History project really reminded of that question we always hear, "what is the meaning of life?". I believe Big History can really provide some insight and some direction to answering that tough, complex question. 

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