Multidisciplinary online course covering the major events in the development and history of the earth into one unified story covering 13.7 billion years. The site explains that “this unified story provides students with a deeper awareness of our past, hopefully better preparing them to help shape the future of our fragile planet.”
The goal is to answer how multiple disciplines (e.g. science, geography, history, astronomy, geology) are all interconnected into a “big picture.”
Type of Material:
Online Course
Recommended Uses:
In class, homework, individual, team, lecture
Technical Requirements:
Worked in Chrome and Explorer. Requires Flash and Adobe.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Students will be introduced to big history in a way the creators hope will reveal “common themes and patterns” to help students “better understand people, civilizations and our place in the Universe.” Students will develop an understanding of a long chronology—13.7 billion years. Students will have many different types of learning experiences based on multimedia and classroom activities that foster group and individual work and thinking. Students will learn about the development of societies through interactive modules set up to teach them large concepts, such as globalization, global warming, and the industrial revolution. The site demonstrates how short human history is in comparison to the history of the universe and students will learn about increased complexity and how many different components are interconnected. This course teaches them to think like a historian and a scientist.
Target Student Population:
• Primarily designed for 9th and 10th grade high school students.
• Adaptable for Middle School
• Adaptable for Senior Capstone project
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Course is multidisciplinary and does not require prerequisites.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
This site appears to be well-researched and well-thought out pedagogically. The content is explained clearly and the text and videos are supplemented by student activities to help them understand concepts.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
This website is built to teach with and is very useful for teachers. It seems like it will be an effective teaching tool and the features demonstrate the designers are familiar with what interests students and what teachers need to help them teach a course.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
This website is beautiful and clearly designed to be appealing to students. It includes videos, animation, text/lessons presented in a comic book format, and captivating images.
Concerns:
• Restricted access without login
• Learning curve to set-up and modify instructor dashboard
Creative Commons:
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