Origin Stories
Driving Question: How can you compare the Big History origin story with others?
Humans have asked questions about the origins of the Universe, Earth, and humanity for thousands of years. The Big History origin story is a modern example of the search for answers.
Learning Objectives:
- Define origin story.
- Compare the Big History origin story with others.
Vocab Terms:
Before diving into the origin stories in this lesson, ensure that you set clear expectations, establish classroom norms, and model thoughtful engagement with your students. For more strategies, check out our Teaching Sensitive Topics in Social Studies one-pager.
Everything has an origin story. Here’s your chance to make up your own!
An OER Project teacher shares that the Comparing Origin Stories activity is one of her Unit 1 must-dos because surveying “origin stories from cultures all around the world reminds us and our students that Big History is part of a long human tradition of making sense of the world and our place within it.”
Want to spice up your Origin Story jigsaw? This community conversation has lots of ideas, from having students create 3D models, puppet shows, and comics, to using short videos to explore other cultures’ stories.
You can tell a lot about a culture by looking at the story it tells about where it came from. Let’s compare some origin stories from around the world!
In this community conversation, you’ll learn how to help students bring their origin stories to life by creating visual representations using AI tools.
Where do you begin your own story? Your first memory? The day you were born? How about the dawn of time?
Time to bring it all together and use your knowledge of origin stories to answer this lesson’s driving question.
People told stories for thousands of years before writing was invented. The information they shared through storytelling was essential for their survival.