1. 1 This slide deck has notes! PLEASE READ ALL THE NOTES BEFORE PRESENTING. Use the notes as a script, if you like. We've designed this presentation to provide the raw materials any teacher might need to describe the Big History course to administrators, parents, and other teachers. You should customize and tailor the presentation as needed. You should update Slide 8 to reflect how the course would function in your specific environment. Slides 12, 13, and 14 each illustrate a sample deployment type for the Big History course (year-long, semester, world history). You might want to delete two of the slides and only keep the one that best reflects your intended deployment. Want help or advice? Email help@bighistoryproject.comhelp@bighistoryproject.com DELETE THIS SLIDE PRESENTER INSTRUCTIONS You need to be aware of a few things before giving this presentation: BIG HISTORY PROJECT / COVER PAGE

2. The Big History Project Introduction to BHP Presentation overview What is Big History? Course overview Website, teacher resources, & online community BHP student writing data Standards alignment Teacher testimonials

3. 3BIG HISTORY PROJECT / INTRODUCTION WHAT IS BIG HISTORY? A social studies course covering 13.8 billion years of shared history. Big History weaves evidence and insights from many disciplines across 13.8 billion years into a single, cohesive, science-based origin story. The concept arose from a desire to go beyond specialized and self-contained fields of study to grasp history as a whole. Big History explores how we are connected to everything around us and where we may be heading. It provides a foundation for thinking about the future and the changes that are reshaping our world. What is Big History?

4. WHAT IS THE BIG HISTORY PROJECT? A collaborative effort to create a Big History course for middle- and high-school teachers everywhere. Complete, free curriculum including assessments, lessons, and hundreds of diverse content items. A website that provides easy access to course materials for educators and students. Training and professional development opportunities, resources, an online professional learning community. Active community of teachers who keep the course fresh, impactful, and connected. Advocacy organization to support schools and districts seeking to deploy the course. What is Big History? 4

5. 5BIG HISTORY PROJECT / WHAT IS BIG HISTORY? WHO IS BEHIND THE BIG HISTORY PROJECT? Experts / Guest Lecturers Broad range of experts on cutting edge of their fields – Walter Alvarez, Janna Levin, Skip Gates, John Green, and many more share their perspectives throughout the course. University of Michigan Research partner: Manages student data (always anonymous!) and drives course strategy. Teachers and Schools The engine behind BHP: The course is built in conjunction with a core set of pilot schools, both public and independent. David Christian and Bill Gates David Christian was one of the pioneers of Big History, and his college-level course inspired Bill Gates to explore a collaboration designed to bring Big History to high-school students everywhere. 1 4 3 2 What is Big History?

6. 6BIG HISTORY PROJECT / INTRODUCTION WHY OFFER BIG HISTORY? It’s a unique opportunity to engage students in a powerful learning experience that prepares them for broader, more integrative thinking. 1.Interdisciplinary: weaves together elements of traditional history, science, and twenty-first century skills 2.Common Core aligned: we engineered the course to deliver on CCSS ELA standards for ninth and tenth grades 3.Innovative online model: makes distribution easy and engages multiple learning styles 4.Flexible: modular curriculum can be adapted to fit school-specific needs spanning PBL, STEM, ELA, world history, and more What is Big History? BIG HISTORY PROJECT / WHAT IS BIG HISTORY 6

7. 7BIG HISTORY PROJECT / WHAT IS BIG HISTORY? COURSE THEMES Our students are the next generation of expert thinkers and problem solvers. They need to confront the biggest challenges we face – and succeed. BHP’s course themes lay the foundation to take on these challenges and ignite a passion for inquiry and exploration. Every student needs to be able to execute the skills and comprehend the concepts below throughout the course. INTEGRATING MULTIPLE DISCIPLINES MAKING AND TESTING CLAIMS THINKING ACROSS SCALE ESSENTIAL SKILLS CORE CONCEPTS ORIGIN STORIES COLLECTIVE LEARNING THRESHOLDS What is Big History? See notes below for more details

8. 8 BIG HISTORY AT (YOUR SCHOOL) Target grade: For example, ninth/tenth grade elective Teachers: Approach: Pre-AP preparatory; designed to prepare students for AP US and world history by providing background and emphasizing core skill development. What Is Big History? BIG HISTORY PROJECT / WHAT IS BIG HISTORY?

9. 9 Course overview COURSE STRUCTURE The Big History course covers 13.8 billion years of history Split into two sections, spanning 10 units 1.Formations and early life: theories and evidence of origins of the Universe, planet formation, elements, and life. 2.Humans: the development of humans, civilizations, and key milestones in our progress. Unit 1 What is BH? Unit 2 The Big Bang Unit 3 Stars & Elements Unit 4 Earth & Solar System Unit 5 Life Unit 6 Early Humans Unit 7 Agriculture & Civilization Unit 8 Expansion & Interconnection Unit 9 Acceleration Unit 10 The Future Writing Assessment 1 Writing Assessment 2 Writing Assessment 3 Pre-Course Survey Post-Course Survey Research Paper and Presentation Formations and early life (35%)Humans (65%) BIG HISTORY PROJECT / COURSE OVERVIEW

10. 10 Course overview COURSE CONTENT UNIT INVESTIGATIONSPBL ACTIVITIES VIDEOS LESSON DOCS INFOGRAPHICS LEVELED TEXTS ACTIVITIES BIG HISTORY PROJECT / COURSE OVERVIEW

11. 11 Course Overview APPROACH TO READING Three close reads - assumed Videos include notebooks and transcripts All texts are leveled across multiple Lexile levels See the notes below for an overview of our approach to reading, and check out the full reading guide here.here BHP has partnered with NEWSELA to level all of the articles in the course. Each article is available in at least three Lexile levels, which allows readers at different ability levels to access and synthesize content.NEWSELA BIG HISTORY PROJECT / COURSE OVERVIEW

12. 12 Course overview APPROACH TO WRITING Big History is a course with a lot of writing. We ask students to keep a journal. We ask them to write both formally and informally in a number of our activities. We ask them to write essays. At the end of the year, we ask them to write a lengthy term paper as part of the Little Big History project. However, perhaps the most important writing activities in the course are the Investigations at the end of each unit. Modeled after Document Based Question assessments (DBQs), these activities mimic the kinds of instruments your students will see on the SATs and other increasingly common performance assessments. Check out our full writing guide here.here BIG HISTORY PROJECT / COURSE OVERVIEW

13. 13 Course Overview APPROACH TO ASSESSMENT Consistent writing and presentation rubrics Practice quizzes for lessons Activities repeat and reinforce Little Big History project Investigations BIG HISTORY PROJECT / COURSE OVERVIEW

14. Course Overview SAMPLE COURSE PLAN: YEAR-LONG Click here to see the full year-long course outline & details

15. Course Overview SAMPLE COURSE PLAN: SEMESTER Click here to see the semester course outline & details

16. 16 Course Overview SAMPLE COURSE PLAN: BHP WORLD Click here to see the BHP World course outline & details

17. 17 BIG HISTORY PROJECT / WEBSITE, RESOURCES, AND COMMUNITY BHP website, teacher resources, and community WEBSITE MAIN PAGE See notes below for more details

18. 18 BHP website, teacher resources & online community UNIT PAGE Each unit has its own page, which is divided into rows that represent lessons. The unit view provides the highlights of each lesson so you can quickly jump to different content elements, and access them individually. BIG HISTORY PROJECT / WEBSITE, RESOURCES, & COMMUNITY

19. BHP website, teacher resources & online community TEACHER RESOURCES The Teaching Big History unit is an online course, designed to help teachers:Teaching Big History unit prepare to teach BHP covers the big ideas of BHP the instructional practices the program details, and the BHP Teacher Community. We worked with our BHP teachers and the University of Michigan to develop the scripts and articles for the course so that it reflects the latest thinking about teaching social studies and has a strong classroom focus. We’re hoping this course will give teachers a running start to the year. 19 BIG HISTORY PROJECT / WEBSITE, RESOURCES, & COMMUNITY

20. BHP website, teacher resources & online community BHP TEACHER COMMUNITY When you start teaching Big History, you join a dynamic, global community of educators who are working toward the same goals. It’s a complex course and there is no reason for each teacher to reinvent the wheel. Request an invite to the community here.here See notes below for more details 20 BIG HISTORY PROJECT / WEBSITE, RESOURCES, & COMMUNITY

21. 21 BIG HISTORY PROJECT / BHP STUDENT IMPACT DATA BHP student impact data The University of Michigan documents BHP’s impact on student writing. Results of the University of Michigan study indicate that the Big History course has a positive impact on student writing across a number of areas. These areas include cohesion around claims, purpose, and reasoning; the use of evidence and data to support arguments; and writing quality and mechanics. One the right is a snapshot of student writing growth as demonstrated on the Big History course Investigations. Click here to see the full write-up from University of MichiganClick here to see the full write-up from University of Michigan. Student writing scores on BHP Investigations. Investigations are DBQ-style writing activities. BHP WRITING DATA

22. Standards alignment Click here to see our full standards alignment document. Common Core State Standards for Literacy (CCSS) STANDARDS ALIGNMENT SUMMARY DESCRIPTION Framework for College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) State and institutional social studies standards BHP has created a series of documents that illustrate course alignment to state and institutional level standards. This growing list includes: California, New York, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Washington, and Arkansas. World history standards Big History is not a science course. However, scientific ideas are introduced throughout the course to support students’ historical analyses and understanding. The NGSS were designed to support students in gaining understanding of core ideas in the sciences through participation in the scientific practices. BH is well suited to support students understanding of core ideas in Earth and space sciences. See notes for more details. See notes below for more details International Baccalaureate Connections to CCSS are embedded throughout the course. BHP provides a variety of readings and activities, along with a variety of instructional practices that ensure students are able to meet all of the elements of the four key CCSS standards (key ideas and details; craft and structure; integration of knowledge and ideas; range of reading; and level of text complexity). See the full standards doc for mapping of BHP activities and resources to CCSS. BHP addresses all of the dimensions of the C3. Some activities address multiple dimensions, while others are more directly related to a singular dimension. In the full standards doc, activities are mapped to the dimensions to which they most directly relate. BHP is often treated as a replacement for world history in schools, which is appropriate given BHP’s scope. During the 2014/15 school year, numerous activities, articles, and videos were added to BHP to address gaps specifically related to the National World History Standards. The performance outcomes that are part of world history standards are easily met by the BHP course. BHP has done an extensive mapping of the course content to the National Standards. BHP has partnered with IB to align the Big History curriculum to IB’s Middle Years Program. The two approaches complement each other very well. Email bob@bgc3.com to request our BHP-IB alignment guide.bob@bgc3.com BIG HISTORY PROJECT / STANDARDS ALIGNMENT 22

23. 23 BIG HISTORY PROJECT / TEACHER AND STUDENT TESTIMONIALS Teacher and student testimonials “[BHP] has some of the best lessons I have seen in my 20 years of teaching. I am seeing [a gradual] improvement in writing as students progress through the curriculum and revisit the practices and skills that make good writers. “ -Sharon Padget “I have seen tremendous growth in my freshman students’ abilities to write thoughtfully, using reason and evidence, which I know sets them up for future success in all their future high school and college courses.” -Andrea Wilford [One of the] most attractive aspects of BHP [for teachers is the active community on] Yammer! A lively, helpful backchannel of guidance, resources, ideas, support -- with administrators and teachers helping each other, contributing to the feedback loop and, in turn, helping to shape and improve the course.” -Lisa Kapp “…we have seen an improvement in APUSH scores from the students who took BH the previous year, and writing skills have improved across the board. Great things all around!” -Bridgette O’Connor ”’I cursed those Investigations while I was doing them, but that process has saved my hide in honors history this year.’ Yes!!” -Student quote via Jami McLing

24. BIG HISTORY PROJECT THANK YOU