ChronoZoom. Www.ibha.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/conference2012/TracySullivan.pdf. Www.ibha.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/conference2012/Grinchenko_Shchapova_USA_2012.pdf. Www.ibha.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/conference2012/ibhacollectivelearning.pdf. Www.ibha.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/conference2012/ChronoZoom-2012-IBHA.pdf. Www.ibha.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/conference2012/ibhawhyanthropocenematters.pdf. David Christian: Big history. David Christian | Profile on TED.com. Big History Project. Description[edit] Bill Gates became interested in big history when he heard a series of lectures by Christian. For Gates, “he really blew me away. Here’s a guy who’s read across the sciences, humanities, and social sciences and brought it together in a single framework. It made me wish that I could have taken big history when I was young, because it would have given me a way to think about all of the school work and reading that followed.
In particular, it really put the sciences in an interesting historical context and explained how they apply to a lot of contemporary concerns”.[3] After Gates and Christian met to discuss the lectures, the genesis of the Big History Project occurred. Project team[edit] The academic advisers are:[6] Initial pilot program[edit] Seven schools were selected for the initial classroom pilot phase of the project. Future pilot program[edit] A second phase of piloting in schools will be utilized in 2012/13 before the release of a free curriculum online in 2013. David Christian (historian) David Gilbert Christian (born 1946) is an Anglo-American historian and scholar of Russian history notable for creating and spearheading an interdisciplinary approach known as Big History.[1][2] He began teaching the first course in 1989 which examined history from the Big Bang to the present using a multidisciplinary approach[3][4] with assistance from scholars in diverse specializations from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.[3] The course frames human history in terms of cosmic, geological, and biological history.[5] He is credited with coining the term Big History[6][7] and he serves as president of the International Big History Association.[5] Christian's best-selling Teaching Company course entitled Big History caught the attention of philanthropist Bill Gates who is personally funding Christian's efforts to develop a program to bring the course to high school students worldwide.[5][8] Christian was born in Brooklyn, New York, to British and American parents.
Big History Project Home. Introduction | Thresholds of Time. Throughout history, humans have attempted to understand the beginning of time and the universe, but a lack of technology and knowledge made this concept incomprehensible to earlier humans. In the past, humans have answered the mystery of the beginning through creation myths: mythic tales of animals, humanoids, and supernatural forces whose actions create the Earth and heavens, generally possessing religious significance. Big History historians hope to create a modern creation myth with technological and factual foundations. “For me, big history has become a wonderful way of explaining how both my own person and everything around me have come into being.” -Fred Spier [1] Modern science has provided a viable theory as to the beginning of the universe and time as we know it, so Big History strives to provide information which might assist humans in answering the question of one’s place and purpose.
Have become the way they are.”