Cookie Policy

Our website uses cookies to understand content and feature usage to drive site improvements over time. To learn more, review our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Acceleration

Driving Question: How has change accelerated in the last 500 years?

Just 500 years ago, we lived in four distinct world zones. Now, we’re linked by a global network of information and commerce. How did this happen so quickly and what challenges did this acceleration bring?

Learning Objectives:

  1. Describe accelerating global change.
  2. Explain the impact of acceleration on population, technology, and the environment.
  3. Use data to make inferences about the past and present.

Vocab Terms:

  • acceleration
  • climate
  • environment
  • fossil fuel
  • nuclear
  • population
  • technology
STEP 1

Opener: Acceleration

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page X of the Lesson 6.4 Teaching Guide Locked .

Join our online teacher community here External link to engage with other educators about Big History Project.

The simplest things you do every day, from flicking on a light switch to turning on an oven, require an amount of energy that would have been baffling just a few hundred years ago. Let’s think about what that change means.

STEP 2

A Changing World

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page X of the Lesson 6.4 Teaching Guide Locked .

Check out our Video Guide for suggestions on incorporating videos in the classroom.

For more detailed directions for reading charts check out A Guide to Reading Charts.

Closer connections between world zones meant more collaboration, innovation, and collective learning. This video and activity get into why that is.

How Did Change Accelerate? External link

A lot has changed in the last 500 years. But what were the drivers of all this change and why did it begin to accelerate?

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
STEP 3

Impacts of Acceleration

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page X of the Lesson 6.4 Teaching Guide Locked .

Is life better after five centuries of incredibly rapid change? Let’s see how you feel after reading this article and working through the activity.

STEP 4

Closer: Acceleration

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page X of the Lesson 6.4 Teaching Guide Locked .

Extension Materials
Checkmark Alert Banner
Want to know more about how people responded to industrialization and acceleration? Check out this graphic biography.
...

Early Environmental Activism

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page X of the Lesson 6.4 Teaching Guide Locked .

Looking for guidance for teaching with Graphic Histories? Join the conversation External link on our online teacher community.

As change accelerated, the environment suffered—but some people sought solutions to overcome these negative effects.