Big History

For students who are logging into the courses of Big History

Dr. Bob Bain, an associate professor of educational studies at the University of Michigan, covers criteria about how to assess claims – intuition, authority, logic, and evidence. Although it is counter-cultural to many of the current narratives in our society, we find that Old Earth Creationism does indeed stand up to these claims in a positive way – which is of course the purpose of this website.

An overview of what the Big History project is all about. The official website uses the nomenclature of OER for “Open Educational Resource”, which refers to teaching and learning materials that “are available online, for anyone to use, free of cost.”

In 6 episodes, Emily Graslie continues telling you the story of “life, the universe, and everything” in Big History 2! This course challenges you to ask “why this stuff matters” and is based on the Big History Project social studies curriculum. By the end of this course, you will be able to:

•Integrate physics, math, history, and more to tell a single story about people, civilizations, and how we are connected to everything around us
•Zoom out to pose and refine scientific and historical questions
•Outline the most powerful and important breakthroughs
•Evaluate how we know what we know and why we’re sure we know it
•Relate topics in Big History to contemporary humans and describe why they matter in our daily lives

The Big History project is now a part of the OER project (Open Educational Resources).

In 10 episodes John Green, Hank Green, and Emily Graslie teach you about, well, everything. It’s Big History! This course will take you on a whirlwind journey from the creation to the death of the universe and is based on the Big History Project social studies curriculum. By the end of this course, you will be able to:

•Integrate physics, math, history, and more to tell a single story about people, civilizations, and how we are connected to everything around us
•Zoom out to pose and refine scientific and historical questions
•Contextualize the tremendous scale of existence
•Outline the most powerful and important breakthroughs
•Evaluate how we know what we know and why we’re sure we know it

The Big History project is now a part of the OER project (Open Educational Resources).

This is not from Big History but it is a good overview of how our current culture approaches creation stories, especially from an academic perspective. Although the word “myth” is often used to denote a story that is untrue, this series uses only the criteria of significance and staying power to decide which myths to describe and leaves truthfulness up to the viewer. This allows these stories to be studied from other perspectives such as psychology, sociology, and literature. It is good to understand this common perspective of lumping origin stories with all mythologies so that we can better understand how many people would be surprised by our claims of the Bible’s exceptionalism.

The Big History project is now a part of the OER project (Open Educational Resources).

OER Project inspires teachers thereby creating inspired students through FREE, innovative curricula and a variety of teaching tools. They offer the following courses, suitable for a range of age levels and adaptable to a variety of state standards:

Full courses:
Big History (BH)
World History (WH)
World History AP® (WH AP®)
Climate
Whichever course you choose, you’ll have access to the following free supports:

Embedded learning supports (leveled articles, audio recordings, and downloadable video transcripts) that meet a variety of students needs are available for all learning materials. (Note: Because of College Board requirements, leveled articles are not included in WH AP®.)
Learning management system (LMS) integration with Google Classroom, Canvas, Schoology, and others.
The OER Project Teacher Community, a vibrant online space where teachers and scholars share ideas on the latest teaching trends, ask questions, and gain access to a variety of professional-development opportunities.
What does OER stand for?

OER stands for open educational resources. That free worksheet you grabbed from Pinterest for your tenth-graders? That’s an example of OER. While there are great OER materials out there, they’re generally in the form of one-off lesson plans and activities that neither link to a standard nor fit into a clear framework. OER Project courses provide more than just quality content—they integrate the instructional and professional supports necessary to teachers so they can spend more time inspiring their students.