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Book Cover
E-book
Author Simon, Richard B

Title Teaching Big History
Published University of California Press, 2014

Copies

Description 1 online resource
Contents Cover; Contents; List of Illustrations; List of Tables; Acknowledgments; Introduction; PART ONE: THE CASE FOR BIG HISTORY; 1. What Is Big History?; 2. Big History and the Goals of Liberal Education; 3. Summer Institutes: Collective Learning as Meta-Education; 4. Assessing Big History Outcomes: Or, How to Make Assessment Inspiring; 5. Big History at Other Institutions; PART TWO: A PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY FOR TEACHING BIG HISTORY; 6. Teaching Complexity in a Big History Context; 7. Teaching Threshold 1: The Big Bang; 8. Teaching Threshold 2: The Formation of Stars and Galaxies
9. Teaching Threshold 3: Heavier Chemical Elements and the Life Cycle of Stars10. Teaching Threshold 4: The Formation of Our Solar System and Earth; 11. Teaching Threshold 5: The Evolution of Life on Earth; 12. Teaching Threshold 6: The Rise of Homo sapiens; 13. Teaching Threshold 7: The Agrarian Revolution; 14. Teaching Threshold 8: Modernity and Industrialization; 15. Threshold 9? Teaching Possible Futures; 16. Reflective Writing in the Big History Classroom; 17. Activities for Multiple Thresholds; 18. Igniting Critical Curiosity: Fostering Information Literacy through Big History
19. A Little Big History of Big HistoryPART THREE: BIG HISTORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS; 20. Big History at Dominican: An Origin Story; 21. Teaching Big History or Teaching about Big History? Big History and Religion; 22. The Case for Awe; Conclusion; Annotated Bibliography of Big History Texts and Resources; List of Contributors; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; Z
Summary 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
Notes Print version record
Subject History -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- Case studies
HISTORY -- World.
History -- Study and teaching (Secondary)
Genre/Form Case studies
Form Electronic book
ISBN 1322224730
9781322224732
9780520959385
0520959388