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Big History

Big History is a unique course that looks at the history of the entire Universe, stretching 13.8 billion years into the past and all the way into the future. You’ll travel to the earliest stars, discover new chemical elements, investigate the Earth’s fiery origins, explore how life on Earth evolved, and journey through human history to see what the future may hold.

Unit 1 • 4 Lessons

What is Big History?

What’s so big about Big History? It explores all 13.8 billion years of the Universe’s history. But it’s also about you, and the tools you’ll need to examine this history—like scale switching and claim testing.

Unit 2 • 6 Lessons

History of the Universe and Earth
Why are we talking about outer space in your history class? Well, we all live on Earth, one planet in our Solar System that makes up a tiny part of our Universe. How can we know anything if we don’t start with the big picture?

Unit 3 • 4 Lessons

Life
Living organisms have evolved into billions of different species since life first emerged over 3 billion years ago. While the complexity of life has increased over time, many species are extinct, which tells us life on Earth is also fragile.

Unit 4 • 5 Lessons

Early Humans
We had to start somewhere. Discover the superpower that helped our earliest ancestors thrive like no other species: collective learning.

Unit 5 • 6 Lessons

Agriculture & Complex Societies
Just about everything we eat today started out on a farm. So, it’s easy to think that farming has always existed, but it hasn’t—humans invented it. As agriculture spread across the world, complex societies usually followed.

Unit 6 • 6 Lessons

The Modern Age
Around 500 years ago, people lived in four distinct world zones. Our only sources of energy were the Sun and human and animal power. Understatement alert: A lot has changed since then!

Unit 7 • 6 Lessons

The Future
Big History is an unfinished story. How do you think complexity will increase in the future? What do you think the next threshold of increasing complexity will be?
Looking for the previous version of this course? Click here.