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Efik Origin Story Compiled by David Baker, adapted by Newsela In this origin story of the
Nigerian Efik people, the first
humans defy the gods to
achieve greater power and
wisdom. The Efik people live in southern Nigeria, for many centuries dwelling near the
regions around the Cross River. They traditionally worshipped... |
What Happened on Easter Island? By David Burzillo, adapted by Newsela Easter Island is most famous for moai,
the huge statues that encircle the island.
What caused its civilization to collapse? Introduction In the spring of 1722, Dutch explorers landed on Easter Island. Upon arrival, they found
a most puzzling and fas... |
Big History: An Overview By John Green, adapted by Newsela History is an attempt to understand both our
insignificance and our significance. To study history is
to better understand the world and your place in it. You are very small. You are one of several billion living members of your species, a
species that lives o... |
Zulu Origin Story Compiled by David Baker, adapted by Newsela Different versions of the
Zulu origin story all share
this theme: Life has a
single common ancestor. The Zulu are a proud African people, famous throughout history for their fierceness and bravery in fending off invaders. Archaeologists tell us they traveled... |
All of the following terms appear in this unit. The terms are arranged here in alphabetical order. adapt — Make fit for, or change to suit a new purpose; adapt or conform oneself to new or different conditions ancestor — Someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent) astrophysics — The... |
Cosmology and Faith An illustration of multiple worlds by 18th-‐century mathematician Leonhard Euler © Science Source By John F. Haught Since the beginning of human existence on our planet, people have asked questions of a religious nature. For example, what happens to the dead? Human beings have always wondered how th... |
Greek Origin Story: The Titans and the Gods of Olympus An illustration of Zeus crowned by Victory © Bettmann/CORBIS Compiled by Cynthia Stokes Brown This origin story comes from some of the earliest Greek writings that have survived. We know the Greek origin story from some of the earliest Greek literary sources that h... |
Approaches to Knowledge By Bob Bain, adapted by Newsela How do people create knowledge? It starts by being puzzled, curious, or even confused about the world. There’s a sense of wonder in it all. Here in a library, surrounded by books, I’ve set out to write about knowledge. Libraries make such appropriate places to di... |
Judeo-Christian Origin Story: Genesis Compiled by Cynthia Stokes Brown This story comes from the first book of the Old Testament, the sacred source book of both Judaism and Christianity. This biblical story comes from Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament, which is the sacred sourcebook of both Judaism and Chris... |
Iroquois Origin Story: The Great Turtle Illustration of the Iroquois Prayer of Thanksgiving © National Geographic Society/CORBIS Compiled by Cynthia Stokes Brown The Iroquois people of North America spoke this story. Settlers from Europe wrote it down. This story comes from the Iroquois people in North America. In the ... |
Origin Stories Introduction By Cynthia Stokes Brown All humans yearn to know where we came from and how our world began. We may have different stories, but they all serve
a similar purpose. Everywhere around the world people tell stories about how the Universe began and how humans came into being. Scholars, namely ant... |
Chinese Origin Story: Pan Gu and the Egg of the World Compiled by Cynthia Stokes Brown First written down about
1,760 years ago, this
story of how the Universe
began was told orally long
before that. This origin story comes from Chinese culture. It was first written down
about 1,760 years ago, roughly 220 — 265 CE, yet... |
Mayan Origin Story: The Popul Vuh Creation by Diego Rivera © Christie’s Images/CORBIS Compiled by Cynthia Stokes Brown This is the beginning of a long, complex story called the Popol Vuh which means “council book.” It was told by the Mayans who long ago lived in theYucatán Peninsula of Mexico. This origin story was tol... |
Modern Scientific Origin Story: The Big Bang Planetary nebula NGC 6210 in Hercules Constellation © ESA/Hubble and NASA By Cynthia Stokes Brown From vast nothingness to a Universe of stars and galaxies and our own Earth. This version of modern science’s origin story is condensed and interpreted from a great body of hist... |
Complexity & Thresholds By David Christian What does complexity mean, and why is it so important? What role has complexity played in getting us to the world we live in today? One of the central themes of this course is the idea of increasing complexity. In the 13.8 billion years since our Universe appeared, more and m... |
The Graphic Biography below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here. Reading 1: Skimming for gist This will be your quickest read. It should help you get the general idea of what the graphic biography will be about. Pay attention to the title, headings, images, and layout. As... |
Evidence for an Expanding Universe By Cynthia Stokes Brown Born: November 20, 1889; Marshfield, Missouri. Died: September 28, 1953; San Marino, California. Edwin Hubble © SPL / Photo Researchers, Inc. In the course of five years, Edwin Hubble twice changed our understanding of the Universe, helping to lay the foundatio... |
A sun-centered view of the universe By Cynthia Stokes Brown Born: February 19, 1473; Torun, Poland. Died: May 24, 1543; Frombork, Poland. An engraving of Copernicus © Copernicus/PoodlesRock/CORBIS In the middle of the 16th century a Catholic, Polish astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, synthesized observational data to for... |
Standing on the Shoulders of Invisible Giants By Eman M. Elshaikh The history of science is a history of our collective learning. Historians piece together different conversations to tell a story that crosses centuries and continents Sir Isaac Newton, the famous English scientist, once said, “If I have seen further, ... |
Measuring Distance in the Universe By Cynthia Stokes Brown Born: July 4, 1868; Lancaster, Massachusetts. Died: December 12, 1921; Cambridge, Massachusetts. Henrietta Leavitt © Photo Researchers Henrietta Leavitt discovered the relationship between the intrinsic brightness of a variable star and the time it took to vary... |
The Graphic Biography below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here. Reading 1: Skimming for gist This will be your quickest read. It should help you get the general idea of what the graphic biography will be about. Pay attention to the title, headings, images, and layout. As... |
All of the following terms appear in this unit. The terms are arranged here in alphabetical order. astronomy — The branch of science that deals with the Universe and the various objects, like stars, planets, and galaxies, that we find within it. Cosmology and astrophysics are closely related to astronomy, and the words... |
Browse through different views of the Universe and zoom in on the light from distant stars to better understand how our understanding of cosmology has evolved. Ptolemy's Universe Source: Big History ProjectThe Ptolemaic view of the Universe was an Earth-centered, or geocentric, model. The Sun and all of the planets orb... |
The Missing Link? The Maragha Observatory By Eman M. Elshaikh From Ptolemy to Copernicus and Galileo, thinkers have debated what the Universe looked like for centuries. Ultimately, scholars moved from an Earth-centered model to a Sun-centered model. How did we get there? Planetary revolutions Television with breaking ... |
An Earth-Centered View of the Universe Born: 85 CE; Hermiou, Egypt. Died: 165 CE; Alexandria, Egypt. Portrait of Ptolemy by Andre Thevet © Bettmann/CORBIS By Cynthia Stokes Brown The Earth was the center of the Universe according to Claudius Ptolemy, whose view of the cosmos persisted for 1400 years until it was overtu... |
Father of Modern Observational Astronomy By Cynthia Stokes Brown Born: February 15, 1564; Pisa, Italy. Died: January 9, 1642; Florence, Italy. An undated portrait of Galileo © Bettmann/CORBIS An Italian Renaissance man, Galileo used a telescope of his own invention to collect evidence that supported a Sun-centered mode... |
Physics, Gravity & the Laws of Motion By Cynthia Stokes Brown Born: January 4, 1643; Lincolnshire, England. Died: March 31, 1727; London, England. Portrait of Isaac Newton © CORBIS Sir Isaac Newton developed the three basic laws of motion and the theory of universal gravity, which together laid the foundation for our c... |
The Red Supergiant Betelgeuse The Red Supergiant Betelgeuse. Source: ESO/L. Calcada This is an artist's impression of the red supergiant Betelgeuse in Orion, a prominent constellation throughout the world. Betelgeuse, the 8th brightest star in the night sky, can be easily identified as one of Orion's armpits. Betelgeus... |
Pure Metal: Jābir Ibn Ḥayyān By Trevor R. Getz Whether an individual or a collection of people, Jābir ibn Ḥayyān’s work with chemical substances was an inspiration and guide for the later creators of chemistry. The original transformer Whether you realize it or not, you wake up every morning and do some chemistry. You... |
The Graphic Biography below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here. Reading 1: Skimming for gist This will be your quickest read. It should help you get the general idea of what the graphic biography will be about. Pay attention to the title, headings, images, and layout. As... |
All of the following terms appear in this unit. The terms are arranged here in alphabetical order. carbon — A chemical element with six protons that is the basis for all known life on Earth. chemical element — A substance whose atoms are all the same (that is, each atom contains the same number of protons as each of th... |
A Closer Look at the Popular Metal A Greek silver tetradrachm from about 160 BCE © Hoberman Collection/CORBIS By Big History Project It’s amazing how much you can learn when you look at things through the lens of Big History. Take a medium-weight element like silver, a shiny whitish metal with an unassuming spot (atomi... |
Marie Curie: Chemistry, Physics, and Radioactivity Marie Curie in 1898 © Bettmann/CORBIS By Michele Feder Using a makeshift workspace, Marie Curie began, in 1897, a series of experiments that would pioneer the science of radioactivity, change the world of medicine, and increase our understanding of the structure of the... |
First-Hand Plate Tectonics Kawah Ljen crater lake, Java, Indonesia © Philippe Crochet/Photononstop/Corbis "I was squinting into the bright sunlight reflecting off the glacier, and my friend ray, the photographer, walked a short ways ahead, a tall silhouette against the brilliant snow and ice." Writer Peter Stark (right... |
The Universe Through a Pinhole: Hasan Ibn al-Haytham By Bennett Sherry Hasan Ibn al-Haytham revolutionized our understanding of how light moves through the Universe and how we see it. He urged people to question ancient knowledge. Standing on the shoulders of giants...and yelling in their ear Isaac Newton said he saw ... |
The features and physical processes of the Earth. The Andes © Maria Stenzel/National Geographic Society/Corbis The Andes are the longest continental mountain range in the world, stretching about 7,000 km or 4,300 miles from the tip of Chile in the South to Ecuador, Columbia and Venezuela in the north. The highest peak ... |
How Our Solar System Formed Illustration of a fledgling solar system. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech By Cynthia Stokes Brown A close look at the planets orbiting our Sun Planets are born from the clouds of gas and dust that orbit new stars. Billions of years ago, circumstances were just right for Earth and the other planets ... |
The Graphic Biography below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here. Reading 1: Skimming for gist This will be your quickest read. It should help you get the general idea of what the graphic biography will be about. Pay attention to the title, headings, images, and layout. As... |
All of the following terms appear in this unit. The terms are arranged here in alphabetical order. accretion — The process by which an object collects matter. For example, planet formation takes place as material orbiting a star gathers together through gravitational or electrostatic attraction, forming larger and larg... |
Excerpts from Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology "Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Bt" by John & Charles Watkins. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons Charles Lyell (1797 — 1875) was a Scottish lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology. It popularized ge... |
The Graphic Biography below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here. Reading 1: Skimming for gist This will be your quickest read. It should help you get the general idea of what the graphic biography will be about. Pay attention to the title, headings, images, and layout. As... |
The cosmic beauty of the Sun, our Solar System, and exoplanets. A Protoplanetary Disk NASA/JPL-Caltech This illustration of a young solar system shows the swirling disk of gas and dust that may later form planets. The star system depicted, NGC 1333-IRAS 4B, is 1,000 light years away in the constellation Perseus. Its ce... |
A Meteorologist, a Geologist, and the Theory of Plate Tectonics Alfred Wegener, courtesy of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research By Cynthia Stokes Brown Alfred Wegener produced evidence in 1912 that the continents are in motion, but because he could not explain what forces could move them, geologi... |
The Graphic Biography below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here. First read: skimming for gist This will be your quickest read. It should help you get the general idea of what the graphic biography will be about. Pay attention to the title, headings, images, and layout. A... |
All of the following terms appear in this unit. The terms are arranged here in alphabetical order. adaptation — The capacity of living organisms to change from generation to generation, becoming better suited to their environments. adaptive radiation — The rapid evolution of many new species that possess adaptations th... |
Video captions in PDF or text format are provided for the following videos. 5.0—What Is Life? Unit 5 Overview: LifeA Big History of EverythingCrash Course Big History: The Origin of Life Unit 5 Overview: Life A Big History of Everything Crash Course Big History: The Origin of Life 5.1—How Did Life Begin and Change? How... |
Life and Purpose: A Biologist Reflects on the Qualities that Define Life Phytoplankton off Vancouver Island, courtesy of Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC By Ursula Goodenough What’s the difference between nonlife and life? To answer this question, we first need to define life. I’ll lay out wha... |
A closer look at the complexity of life and some of its important "mini-thresholds." Mini-thresholds The Big History Project One way of looking at the development of life on Earth is to identify "mini-thresholds," times when life seems to have gotten distinctly more complex. The Brothers National Oceanic and Atmospheri... |
Explore the biosphere, zoom in on some unique ecosystems and learn how activity in the Solar System and plate tectonics can affect the climate and life on the planet. The Biosphere Click here for a bigger version. Big History Project The biosphere is the network of all life on Earth. Many organisms are able to flourish... |
What is the Biosphere? Earth from space © Science Picture Co/Science Faction/CORBIS By Cynthia Stokes Brown The History of a Word Sometimes the history of a word can tell us a lot about what the word means. The study of words even has its own name: etymology. Often, a closer look at a word unfolds into another story, o... |
Where we investigate images about DNA, evolution, and natural selection. The Complexity of Life © Ocean/Corbis In this image, a monarch butterfly in its caterpillar stage eats a milkweed leaf. The leaf processes energy from the sun and grows in a certain size and shape that distinguishes it as milkweed. The caterpillar... |
Darwin, Evolution, and Faith Jellyfish Lake in Palau, Micronesia © Michele Westmorland/CORBIS By John F. Haught Nothing in contemporary science has proved more challenging to religious believers than evolutionary biology. Disputes about the religious and theological implications of Darwin’s ideas have been going on now... |
The Graphic Biography below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here. First read: skimming for gist This will be your quickest read. It should help you get the general idea of what the graphic biography will be about. Pay attention to the title, headings, images, and layout. A... |
Crick, Watson, and Franklin: The Race to Discover the Structure of DNA Top: Francis Crick in 1962 © Bettmann/CORBIS. Bottom left: James Watson © Bettmann/CORBIS. Bottom right: Rosalind Franklin © Science Source By Cynthia Stokes Brown In 1953, three English biochemists helped unlock the mystery of life by determining t... |
Explore the images of this gallery and consider the genetic differences and similarities between humans and other species. The Human Branch Zooming in on the Big History timeline. Click here for a bigger version. Downoad PDF. The evolutionary path that led to modern humans goes back millions of years and merges with th... |
Lucy & the Leakeys The skeleton of Lucy © Alain Nogues/Sygma/CORBIS By Cynthia Stokes Brown *Until the 1950s, European scientists believed that Homo sapiens evolved in Europe, or possibly in Asia, about 60,000 years ago. Since then, excavation of fossil bones in East Africa, pioneered by Mary and Louis Leakey, has reve... |
Jane Goodall: Biography of a primatologist Jane Goodall observes a chimpanzee named Frodo © Kennan Ward/CORBIS By Cynthia Stokes Brown In 1960 Jane Goodall pioneered the study of chimpanzees in the wild, showing the world how similar chimpanzee behavior is to that of humans, and helping to demonstrate the close evoluti... |
It's hard to pinpoint exactly when and how collective learning first began. The following images, most of them created by contemporary artists, help us imagine how our early ancestors lived and shared ideas. Using Tools © NIKOLA SOLIC/Reuters/Corbis The making and using of tools, shown here in a reenactment, was though... |
Follow human migration out of the Great Rift Valley, examine archaeological records from early humans, and contemplate how some of our ancestors lived as hunters and gatherers. Out of Africa The Big History Project The first humans originated in Africa's Great Rift Valley, a large lowland area caused by tectonic plate ... |
Life as a Hunter-Gatherer Two Bushmen hunters rest © Anthony Bannister/Gallo Images/CORBIS By Cynthia Stokes Brown For 95 percent of their time on Earth, humans have sustained themselves by foraging, that is, by hunting and gathering food from their natural environment. The Evolution of Foraging Living as we do with ma... |
Reading 1: Skimming for gist This will be your quickest read. It should help you get the general idea of what the graphic biography will be about. Pay attention to the title, headings, images, and layout. Ask yourself: what is this graphic biography going to be about? Reading 2: Understanding content For this reading, ... |
The Graphic Biography below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here. Reading 1: Skimming for gist This will be your quickest read. It should help you get the general idea of what the graphic biography will be about. Pay attention to the title, headings, images, and layout. As... |
Using Language to Share and Build Knowledge Cave paintings of cattle at Tassili N’Ajjer, Algeria© Kazuyoshi Nomachi/Corbis By David Christian In the first essay of a four-part series, David Christian explains what collective learning is and why it makes us humans so unusual. What Is Collective Learning? Look at the tec... |
All of the following terms appear in this unit. The terms are arranged here in alphabetical order. anthropology — The scientific study of human beings and human culture, including beliefs, customs, and archaeological records. archaeology — The scientific study of human activity in the past, primarily by finding and exa... |
All of the following terms appear in this unit. The terms are arranged here in alphabetical order. agrarian civilization — A large, organized human society that relies on a large number of its members producing food through agriculture. May incorporate hundreds of thousands or even millions of people, and include citie... |
Explore the images of this gallery and consider how increased productivity from the land, food surpluses, and swelling populations changed the types of communities that humans lived in. The Cradle of Civilization The Big History Project As with agriculture, the first human civilizations emerged in the Fertile Crescent.... |
Geography Shapes Culture and History in the Far East A marble bust of Buddha from the Tang Dynasty © Christie’s Images/CORBIS By Craig Benjamin, adapted by Newsela The complex and powerful states, dynasties, and civilizations that emerged in East Asia were strongly influenced by the environments in which they prospered... |
We're Not in Kansas Anymore By Anita Ravi The development of agriculture led to the creation of cities. Once people figured out how to grow large quantities of food, store it for future use, domesticate animals, and irrigate crops, they could stay put and stop roaming. *The world’s largest cities in 2250 and 1200 BCE.... |
Endurance in the Fertile Crescent The Fall of Jericho from Gates of Paradise, by Lorenzo Ghiberti © Bill Ross/CORBIS By Craig Benjamin Jericho, located in the West Bank region of the Middle East, is the oldest continuously inhabited city on the planet. History and Environment Jericho’s 14,000-year survival is a direct ... |
The Graphic Biography below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here. First read: skimming for gist This will be your quickest read. It should help you get the general idea of what the graphic biography will be about. Pay attention to the title, headings, images, and layout. A... |
Scientists are still not sure why humans abandoned foraging and took up farming in several places around the world at about the same time. This gallery highlights where agriculture emerged and what was grown. Global Warming The Big History Project Glaciers continued to advance until about 18,000 years ago. At this poin... |
The World’s First Big City Sumerian statuette of a priest, c. 3000 BCE© Gianni Dagli Orti/CORBIS By Cynthia Stokes Brown, adapted by Newsela Nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the world’s first major city sprang up in a fertile region of land called Mesopotamia. The First City Between approximately 3600 a... |
How We Chronicle the Past A Babylonian astronomical calendar, c. 1000 BCE© Science Source By David Christian, adapted by Newsela Although many species note the passing of time, only our own species, Homo sapiens, is capable of sharing accounts, or memories, of past events and turning these into stories or “histories.” ... |
The Origin of World Religions By Anita Ravi As people created more efficient systems of communication and more complex governments in early agrarian civilizations, they also developed what we now call religion. Having done some research on the common features of early agrarian cities, I’m interested in finding out why... |
Introduction to Agrarian Civilizations A White Marble Head of Buddha. Tang Dynasty © Christie’s Images/CORBIS By Cynthia Stokes Brown During the same narrow sliver of cosmic time, cities, states, and civilizations emerged independently in several places around the world. Definitions The first agrarian civilizations dev... |
Agriculture and the Power of Networks Terraces in Rwanda © Tom Martin/JAI/CORBIS By David Christian In the second essay of a four-part series, David Christian explains how the spread of agriculture and the rise of civilizations generated powerful networks of collective learning. Farming Speeds Up the Pace of Collective... |
The Graphic Biography below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here. First read: skimming for gist This will be your quickest read. It should help you get the general idea of what the graphic biography will be about. Pay attention to the title, headings, images, and layout. A... |
The Ghana Empire By David Baker West Africa independently developed agriculture, and the “human experiment” proceeded for many centuries as West Africa developed large and complex states, before getting caught up in the “unification of the world zones.” The start of West African states West Africa was one of those reg... |
Repeated Reinventions Sculpted stone Olmec head© Werner Forman/Corbis By Cynthia Stokes Brown Civilization in Mesoamerica flourished and crashed repeatedly, giving rise to a distinctive worldview and some remaining mysteries. The Geography of the Americas The Americas constitute one of the world’s four geographical zon... |
Early Experiments in Participatory Government A Roman statue of Athena© Mimmo Jodice/CORBIS By Cynthia Stokes Brown Instead of rule by a single person, Athens and Rome developed governments with widespread participation by male elites, which lasted about 170 years in Athens and about 480 years in Rome. Deep Time Presen... |
Aksum By David Baker The Aksum Empire was the result of two world hubs sharing their collective learning about agriculture, and rose to become a great power in the ancient world because it formed a crucial link between East and West on the supercontinent of Afro-Eurasia. East Africa East Africa was the cradle of our s... |
The Origin Of Agriculture In Africa By David Baker, Adapted By Newsela Sub-Saharan Africa is notable for the unusual path it took into the agrarian era, much of it affected by the fact that it is the homeland of humanity itself. Agriculture: why wasn’t Africa first? As long as humans have existed, some of them have a... |
All of the following terms appear in this unit. The terms are arranged here in alphabetical order. Anthropocene epoch — A new epoch, not formally accepted by geologists, during which our species has become the dominant force for change in the biosphere. The Anthropocene marks the end of the Holocene epoch, about the ti... |
An Age of Adventure A drawing of Marco Polo © Bettmann/CORBIS By Cynthia Stokes Brown Do you think that long-distance travel is a modern invention? Do you suppose that everyone stayed home until airlines started scheduling flights around the world? Do you think that long-distance travel is a modern invention? Do you su... |
Benjamin Banneker: Science in Adversity By David Baker, adapted by Newsela Benjamin Banneker was a mathematician, astronomer, and polymath, widely regarded as one of the first African-American scientists and a gifted figure during the Age of Enlightenment. The human thirst for knowledge, even in the face of tough circ... |
Hazards and Hospitality on an Ancient Trade Route The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau© AStock/CORBIS By Peter Stark The second day into the mountains of the Tibetan Plateau, everything went wrong. Our canteens ran dry. We struggled up a mountain pass behind the caravan of yaks that carried our luggage. It was so steep and h... |
Italian Trader at the Court of Kublai Khan A drawing of Marco Polo © Bettmann/CORBIS By Cynthia Stokes Brown At the height of the Mongol Empire, Marco Polo served Emperor Kublai Khan in China and returned to Venice to write an account of his experiences that would give Europeans some of their earliest information about... |
Throughout human history, different cultures have used boats for transportation, commerce, and warfare. Explore a few examples of the different boats we've used. Roman Galley An 18th-century engraving of a Roman warship © Stapleton Collection/CORBIS The Mediterranean region was one of the first centers of sea commerce ... |
Chinese Admiral in the Indian Ocean A monument to Zheng He at the Stadthuys Museum in Malaysia, photograph by Hassan Saeed By Cynthia Stokes Brown In the early 1400s, Zheng He led the largest ships in the world on seven voyages of exploration to the lands around the Indian Ocean, demonstrating Chinese excellence at shi... |
The Graphic Biography below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here. First read: skimming for gist This will be your quickest read. It should help you get the general idea of what the graphic biography will be about. Pay attention to the title, headings, images, and layout. A... |
Different cultures developed various forms of currency – both as a recordkeeping device and as a medium of exchange. Wheels of Fortune On the isolated Pacific islands of Yap (in Micronesia), a currency developed that was based on wheels of limestone. As the material was not available on the Yap Islands, Yapese had to ... |
A Curious Case: African Agrarianism By David Baker, adapted by Newsela Due to the “late” start of agriculture in Central and South Africa below the Sahara and Sahel, we only see the first glimmer of agrarian civilizations beginning to emerge in the region from 1000 to 1500 CE, before their development was interrupted ... |
The Lion of the Sea: Ahmad Ibn Majid By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor Being a great sailor requires a lot of knowledge, and the greatest among them relied heavily on the collective learning that made crossing the vast Indian Ocean possible. Oceans of knowledge You’ve read the histories of famous thirteenth- and fourteenth-c... |
China: The First Great Divergence By David Baker, Adapted By Newsela The story of Medieval China is an example of the power of collective learning to produce rapid advances in human complexity. The two “great divergences” Historians sometimes refer to the Industrial Revolution as the “Great Divergence” where suddenly ... |
Muslim Traveling Judge A 1605 painting of a young holy man © Stapleton Collection/CORBIS By Cynthia Stokes Brown The account of the travels of the Muslim legal scholar Ibn Battuta in the first half of the 14th century reveals the wide scope of the Muslim world at that time. The Abode of Islam During the life of Ibn Bat... |
Thank You for Algebra: Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi By Bennett Sherry The Muslim mathematician al-Khwarizmi built on ancient ideas and offered new approaches to mathematics that we still rely on today. Translating the heavens Is math the language of science? If it is, then we should thank Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwari... |
Climate and geography divide human populations Asia from space © CORBIS By Cynthia Stokes Brown For a brief period, from about 10,000 years ago to about 500 years ago, the rising seas at the end of the last ice age divided the world into four non-connected geographic zones. Isolated from one another, four groups of peo... |
Trade Routes Connect the Vast Continent of Afro-Eurasia A Scythian/Pazyryk horseman, c. 300 BCE,State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg By Craig Benjamin Beginning with early agrarian civilizations, societies started to connect into large networks of exchange, leading to levels of collective learning never seen before... |
Rapid Acceleration By David Christian In the final essay of a four-part series, David Christian explains how advances in communication and transportation accelerated collective learning. Postindustrial Connections We have explored some of the ways in which networks of collective learning evolve. And we’ve focused on th... |
Anthropocene Africa - Out of Every Crisis, an Opportunity By David Baker, Adapted By Newsela While Africa’s recent history has been troubled and it still faces many dire challenges in the twenty-first century, from a Big History perspective, Africa has a tremendous opportunity in the next few centuries to play a huge ... |
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