Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

5 minutes – The story so far...
20 minutes – Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge
10 minutes – Part B: How to be a Big Historian and Claim Tester
20 minutes – Part C: Independent Learning - Bicycle Reiteration Design
5 minutes – Reflection

Presentation Slides

We strongly encourage you to use the Presentation Slides as a guide for yourself and your students through this lesson.

The story so far...

Step 1. Revisit the story so far, using the Threshold Cards as a guide to retell the story of the history of the universe. Students should be involved in the retelling - you might nominate different students each lesson to be responsible for a different threshold. Prompt them to explain what ingredients were present in the universe at the time, what goldilocks conditions existed to enable a change, and the new complexity it resulted in.

Remember, students' explanations can't be wrong, but you might supplement them with the information below.

In the beginning, we weren't sure there was anything in the universe. If there was, we don't know what it was. We also don't know what the conditions were like. However, something happened, which we know as the Big Bang. This caused the universe to change so much that we recognise it as a new complexity - almost a totally new place. After that, we had space, time, matter (hydrogen and helium), and energy (gravity and electromagnetism).
These were perfect Goldilocks Conditions for something to happen. First, gravity pulled matter together. Inside these fusions, it was more than 10 million degrees Celsius. Suddenly, stars lit up. Galaxies, clusters, and superclusters were formed.
The stars started to age and die. They were running out of hydrogen and helium. Giant stars collapsed, fusing to create more complex elements in the billion-degree temperatures. After a time, 92 elements were present in the universe, making our universe a far more complex place.
Now gravity started to have an impact on these new elements. They underwent accretion. Random collisions started to happen, where elements gathered together and combined. Eventually, these clusters grew big enough to create comets, asteroids, and - most exciting of all - planets. Much more complex structures, including our Solar System, developed in the universe.
Now there was just the right amount of energy for many different chemical reactions to take place. And, importantly, there was liquid water, which made it easier for matter to combine and recombine. So that's exactly what it did! Complex chemicals, including DNA, came together to form new life that could maintain and refuel (feed) itself, adapt to changes around itself over time, and copy itself (reproduce).
That life soon evolved into human life. But the early humans still had a long way to go. Big, powerful brains and the ability to share learning using precise language and symbols made the perfect conditions for humans to transfer and store information across individuals and communities as they interacted. This led to a new species of humans: homosapiens.
Stable, permanent human communities grew larger and more common. They possessed knowledge about the environment collected over many years and through generations. The climate was warmer, allowing many plants and animals to flourish in different regions. So humans domesticated these plants and animals. They innovated ways to produce food more efficiently. Communities of farms became villages, and then cities. And there was a rapid acceleration of collective learning.

The universe had changed once again.

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

You can also use the Presentation Slides to guide you through these steps.

Step 1. In Lesson 10, we learned about Collective Learning: how humans could pass on knowledge across generations, and work together to build on one another's thinking.

In Lesson 11, we saw how farming practices were able to be maintained and refined across generations, leading to great advancements in human civilisation.

In the modern era, our ability to communicate and travel quickly and across great distances has led to a great acceleration in collective learning.

Let's look at an example.

Step 2. As a class, discuss the following. As you go, create a timeline, going backwards, to map the development of communication and travel technologies.

If I wanted to tell my nana something, how could I do it? Examples might include calling her on the phone, or sending her a text or an email.
How quick are these forms of communication? They are nearly instantaneous, depending on when Nana picks up her phone!
What would I have to do before these technologies were invented? I might have been able to send her a telegram. Before that, I would have to write her a letter.
How quick are these forms of communication? A letter could have taken a few days to a few months to be delivered, depending on if Nana lived overseas.
What would I have to do before these technologies were invented? I'd probably have to talk to my nana directly. If she didn't live close by, I would probably never speak to her.
What are some other ways humans receive information? Examples might include through the internet, TV, or radio. Before that, newspapers were an important source of information.

Lead students towards the understanding that technologies allowed communication to be much quicker and more widespread, which allowed collective learning to make rapid advancements. In the past, you would have had to wait for correspondence to be delivered to you in an envelope. Nowadays, we can collaborate instantaneously over the internet.

Step 3. Let's apply the same lens to travel.

If I wanted to visit my nana, how could I do it? Examples might include driving in a car over to her house, or taking a plane if she lives overseas.
How quick are these forms of travel? Pretty quick. Less than 24 hours in most cases, probably.
What would I have to do before these technologies were invented? I might have had to take a train or a ship - if those lines of travel were running. There were some places that were still inaccessible.
How quick are these forms of travel? A trip could take a few days, to a couple of weeks, to half a year with stops for supplies.
What would I have to do before these technologies were invented? I'd probably be riding a horse, maybe a horse and carriage. Before that, I may not really have been travelling far out of my village at all.

Lead students towards the understanding that technologies allowed travel to be much quicker and easier than it had been before. They were able to connect with formerly isolated cultures and share ideas, foods, and inventions, which they could integrate into their societies and improve upon. Becoming more globally connected with the invention of ships allowed collective learning to be exposed to new ways of thinking and to rapidly accelerate.

Part B: Explicit Learning - Expansion and interconnection

Step 1. Watch:

Threshold 8: The Modern Revolution | Big History Project (Public Embed) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6qTSxKLTIc)

Step 2. Prepare students to be on the lookout for all the new technologies mentioned in this next video.

Step 3. Watch:

Crash Course Big History #8: The Modern Revolution (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYS3-ShEnbs)

Step 4. Create a wordlist on the board of all the technologies mentioned, as well as any unfamiliar terms or concepts you might have to explore further.

Part C: Independent Learning - Bicycle reiteration design

Step 1. It's important to return to a point made in the first video.

The industrial revolution allowed human civilisation to advance in many impressive ways. However, this revolution came on the back of coal and oil (fossil fuels) as a fuel source, which led to many of the climate and environmental challenges we are experiencing today.

Cool has tonnes of great resources right here that you can use to explore climate change challenges and solutions.

Step 2. One solution is to look for alternatives to powered transportation without losing our interconnectedness.

Enter the bicycle: powered by clean energy (human legs), great for physical health and fitness, greatly expanding the distance a person can travel, and featuring a design that has been reiterated upon many times thanks to collective learning.

Step 3. Watch:

The Bicycle: Great inventions that changed history | Educational Videos for Kids (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNbUS6R64Fk)

Step 4. Independently, using the Student Worksheet, students first read a short text about the importance of bicycles for sustainability in the modern day.

Step 5. Next, students compare some of the advantages and disadvantages of bike designs throughout the ages.

Remind students to consider sustainability, increased mobility, and safety.

Step 6. Finally, students imagine where bike technology might go in the future. Are there any improvements we can make to bikes?

We're already looking at electric bikes and foldable bikes, which have some advantages over an already solid design.

Students can draw their idea for a bike of the future, label the features of the diagram, and write a short paragraph explaining how it works and their thought process behind the design.

Reflection

Exit Ticket - Before moving to their next class or an outside break, students purchase their 'exit' with a 'ticket' that demonstrates their understanding of the learning undertaken in this lesson.

You can have students write their responses on a sticky note along with their name, or you can have them line up and verbally communicate their understanding to you at the door as they leave.

In three sentences, students:

Name one invention throughout history that changed the way humans communicated or travelled
Explain how this invention improved the ability of humans to expand or remain connected
Explain any challenges this invention might have brought into the world (for example: pollution).

Threshold Crossed

Finally, tell the next part of the history of the universe that we have just covered.

"Eventually there were large networks all across the globe, allowing for the sharing of information and the trade of goods. New energy resources such as coal were discovered, ushering in the age of the Industrial Revolution.

Humans now had control over resources, and lived in a globally connected society. They experienced a rapid population growth.

But this also resulted in resources being consumed at a much faster rate - possibly more than was sustainable.

The universe had changed once again."

Stick your Threshold 8 Card up around the classroom somewhere as an indicator of a threshold being crossed!

Students fill in their Threshold Reflection Sheet.

Where to next?

Students' learning throughout Big History is leading them towards designing future cities. As Big Historians, we are travelling through 13.82 billion years of our universe’s history to find solutions to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal #11: to make cities inclusive, safe and resilient.

Remind students that the Sustainable Development Goals are the world’s to-do list for people and the planet. We all need to be a part of the process. 193 nations came together and agreed on one common list for all of us that helps make the planet and our communities stronger.

What will be our ninth touchdown threshold in our final learning unit? The Future: How does your learning about our 13.82 billion years of history help us to imagine the future?

Big History Passport Check-in

After this lesson, students should have added to their Big History Passport:

Student Worksheet - Bicycle comparison page
Threshold 8 Reflection Page.

Teacher Reflection

Big History - Human Development - Expansion and Interconnection

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