A sphere made up of points of light connected with lines

Home

Big History

Unit 10

The Future

Big History is an unfinished story. What do you think life will be like in 10 years? In 50? What do you think the next major threshold of increasing complexity will be?

Previous Unit

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.

Student Resources

Unit Vocab Download
Google Docs
Threshold 9 Card Download
Course Glossary

Unit 10 Driving Question

What’s the next threshold?

10.0
10.1
10.2
10.3

Previous Unit

10.0 Looking Back

View Lesson

Opener

PDF / 3

Timeline Review

Info

PDF / 3

Timeline Review

What do you think are the most important moments in Big History? This activity asks you to look back and jot down the highlights. No, you can’t just list the thresholds. That would be cheating.

Download

Visual Aid

JPG

Timeline: Big History

Info

JPG

Timeline: Big History

Eight dramatic thresholds and 13.7 billion years. Where did we start and where are we now? How did we get here, and what can that tell us about the future?

Download

Video

MP4 / 7:41

Info

MP4 / 7:41

Unit 10 Overview: The Future

What will the future hold and what might be our next threshold of increasing complexity? Do some time traveling with present-day and future Rachel to find out!

Download

Activity

PDF / 2

Vocab – Word Wall

Info

PDF / 2

Vocab – Word Wall

Your final word wall of the Big History course. Featuring: Unit 10 vocab!

Download

Video

MP4 / 17:43

Info

MP4 / 17:43

The History of Everything - TED

David Christian gives a TED talk covering the Universe's 13.8-billion-year history in 18 minutes.

Download

Activity

PDF / 1

DQ Notebook

Info

PDF / 1

DQ Notebook

Here's your new unit driving question. Respond to this based on what you currently know…don't worry if it's not much—you're about to learn a lot more!

Download

Activity

PDF / 2

Scale – Review

Info

PDF / 2

Scale – Review

Scale is one of the big ideas in Big History. In this activity, you'll think about the readings, videos, and activities that explain scale throughout the course, and highlight your favorites.

Download

Closer

PDF / 2

Disciplines – What Do You Know, What Do You Ask?

Info

PDF / 2

Disciplines – What Do You Know, What Do You Ask?

Something big has just happened. You have been tasked to assemble a panel of experts to look into it. Who do you call, and why?

Download

10.1 The Biosphere

View Lesson

Opener

PDF / 2

Natural Disasters

Info

PDF / 2

Natural Disasters

What makes something a natural disaster? What role do we humans play in making these disasters worse? This activity will ask you to explore what is truly natural about a natural disaster.

Download

Activity

PDF / 2

Vocab Tracking

Info

PDF / 2

Vocab Tracking

An individualized tracker for new words encountered in Unit 10. Add to it as the unit progresses.

Download

Video

MP4 / 13:54

Info

MP4 / 13:54

Globalization II - Good or Bad?: Crash Course World History #42

In this episode of Crash Course World History, John asks whether globalization is a net positive for humanity. We have fewer poor people and infant mortality continues to go down, but it comes at a cost.

Download

Video

MP4 / 3:38

Info

MP4 / 3:38

The Atmosphere and Climate

Explore climate change on a geologic time scale, and consider recent human impacts on climate and the atmosphere.

Download

Article

PDF / 1

The Climate Science Pioneer: Eunice Newton Foote – Graphic Biography

Info

PDF / 1

The Climate Science Pioneer: Eunice Newton Foote – Graphic Biography

Today, we know that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide cause global warming. A woman named Eunice was the first to discover this, but her work was mostly ignored.

Download

Video

MP4 / 5:16

Info

MP4 / 5:16

Jacqueline Howard: A Day on Mars

Could humans relocate to Mars? Is it a potential future home for our species?

Download

Activity

PDF / 4

Gapminder Card Sort

Info

PDF / 4

Gapminder Card Sort

What does it mean to say that a country is developing? What can we learn from data to help us rethink our perspective on other countries?

Download

Closer

PDF / 2

Visions of the Future

Info

PDF / 2

Visions of the Future

How will resources and opportunity be distributed in the future? American scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., hopes that the advances of technology will benefit everyone.

Download

10.2 Looking Forward

View Lesson

Video

MP4 / 7:54

Info

MP4 / 7:54

A Big History of Everything - H2

This episode of Big History from H2 covers the entire story of Big History in a single episode. Now that you’ve completed the course, let’s revisit this episode and see if your perspective has changed at all.

Download

Article

PDF / 7

Complexity and the Future

Info

PDF / 7

Complexity and the Future

What will be the next major threshold? A historian contemplates complexity, fragility, and sustainability.

Download

Video

MP4 / 3:33

Info

MP4 / 3:33

Bill Gates: Visions of the Future

Businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates looks toward a future of sustainable energy and worldwide education.

Download

Video

MP4 / 13:30

Info

MP4 / 13:30

Crash Course: The Deep Future

What do the near future, distant future, and the really, really distant future have in store for us? The Greens explore extinction, colonization, and natural disaster dilemmas in this Crash Course Big History video.

Download

Article

PDF / 1

Satyendra Nath Bose – Graphic Biography

Info

PDF / 1

Satyendra Nath Bose – Graphic Biography

Satyendra Nath Bose contributed to breakthroughs in quantum physics. His big ideas helped us understand the tiniest scale of our Universe.

Download

Article

PDF / 8

Biography of Sylvester James Gates, Jr.

Info

PDF / 8

Biography of Sylvester James Gates, Jr.

A profile of Sylvester James Gates, Jr., distinguished professor, scientist, and member of US President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Download

Activity

PDF / 1

DQ Notebook

Info

PDF / 1

DQ Notebook

Time to revisit the driving question. Using evidence from the videos and articles you’ve seen so far, what do you know that you didn’t know before?

Download

Closer

PDF / 2

The Future of Our Planet

Info

PDF / 2

The Future of Our Planet

It’s important not only to try to predict the challenges the Earth might face, but also to consider how we can either prevent those problems or discover ways to fix them if they’re inevitable.

Download

10.3 Science – Are We Alone?

View Lesson

Opener

PDF / 1

Alien Life – What Might It Look Like?

Info

PDF / 1

Alien Life – What Might It Look Like?

Science fiction writers do it all the time. Now it’s your turn to think about what extraterrestrial life forms might look like.

Download

Activity

PDF / 1

Anyone Out There? (The Drake Equation)

Info

PDF / 1

Anyone Out There? (The Drake Equation)

Frank Drake first tried out this equation at a 1961 meeting of SETI, which obviously stands for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

Download

Article

PDF / 4

“Are We Alone? Now Is the Time to Find Out”

Info

PDF / 4

“Are We Alone? Now Is the Time to Find Out”

We will never know for sure that extraterrestrial life doesn’t exist, but what will it mean for us as humans if and when we find out that it does?

Download

Closer

PDF / 2

First Contact

Info

PDF / 2

First Contact

Remember that emoticon message in a bottle we sent into space? Imagine we received a reply. What are you and ET going to talk about now?

Download

Visual Aid

JPG

Timeline: Big History

Info

JPG

Timeline: Big History

Eight dramatic thresholds and 13.7 billion years. Where did we start and where are we now? How did we get here, and what can that tell us about the future?

Download

Video

MP4 / 21:56

Info

MP4 / 21:56

Pocket Time Machine - H2

How does the cellphone in your pocket link to the Big Bang, the evolution of human memory, and even the Titanic disaster?

Download

Article

PDF / 7

Claim Testers Episode 4: Fueling the Future

Info

PDF / 7

Claim Testers Episode 4: Fueling the Future

In this final episode, the claim tester gang comes face-to-face with Orx-30 and his licensed army.

Download

Video

MP4 / 2:32

Info

MP4 / 2:32

Threshold 9: The Future

Big history is not yet finished. How might the lessons of the past eight thresholds inform our expectations for the future? What role will you play in shaping the next threshold of the big history?

Download

Video

MP4 / 2:59

Info

MP4 / 2:59

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: Visions of the Future

How will resources and opportunity be distributed in the future? American Scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. hopes that the advances of technology will benefit everyone.

Download

Video

MP4 / 6:20

Info

MP4 / 6:20

Sanjayan: Visions of the Future

What can we learn from volcanic ash in Laetoli? Sanjayan discusses human interaction with the biosphere and how we are reconnecting with nature.

Download

Article

PDF / 12

Part 2 Summary

Info

PDF / 12

Part 2 Summary

A look back over the last five units of the course.

Download

Activity

PDF / 11

Unit 10 - PBL

Info

PDF / 11

Unit 10 - PBL

Predict the next threshold using your knowledge of big history and understanding of the eight thresholds. How can you shape the future?

Download

Activity

PDF / 9

Investigation 10

Info

PDF / 9

Investigation 10

What do you think humans will look like and act like 100,000 years from now? Do you think we’ll be significantly different? Or do you think we’ll be exactly the same?

Download

Activity

PDF / 3

Predicting What’s Next

Info

PDF / 3

Predicting What’s Next

What fate awaits humans in the next couple-thousand years? Students evaluate the likelihood of certain events happening, and whether they'd be good or bad for society.

Download

Article

PDF / 4

How can an understanding of history help us predict the future?

Info

PDF / 4

How can an understanding of history help us predict the future?

Our future isn’t a certain conclusion of doom and gloom. It’s a range of possibilities we must assess with the reasoning we develop from studying history.

Download

Get OER Project insights and updates delivered to your inbox.

Please enter a valid email

I accept the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for OER Project. You must accept the privacy policy and terms

The Future

Cookie Policy

Student Resources

Student Resources

Unit 10 Driving Question

10.0 Looking Back

10.1 The Biosphere

10.2 Looking Forward

10.3 Science – Are We Alone?

Other Materials