Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Big History Project (BHP)?

Big History Project is a free, online social studies course for middle- and high-school students that spans 13.8 billion years. It weaves insights from many disciplines to form a single story that helps students develop a framework to organize and connect what they’re learning both in and out of school. For an overview, see Big History founder David Christian’s TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/david_christian_big_ history.html.

What are the goals of the course?

Big History challenges students to think critically and broadly, and tries to ignite a passion for inquiry and exploration. In addition to helping students master the sequence and scope of 13.8 billion years, the course develops essential skills and intellectual tools such as: thinking critically across scales and disciplines, building informed arguments, making and testing claims, and writing. See the BHP Full Course Guide for details on these essential skills and core concepts.

Who is the target student?

Big History is designed as a social studies/history course targeting sixth- through tenth-grade students. With a variety of content formats, scaffolds, and structured routine-based approaches to fundamental historical thinking and writing skills, Big History Project accommodates a wide range of student skill levels. If you’re teaching middle-school or general high-school social studies, Big History Project is right for your students.

How is the course delivered?

All of the content is available online. A completely web-based model ensures the content is up to date, relieves schools of the need for costly textbooks, and helps teachers engage students by providing approachable, media-rich materials that can be used in different ways. Students and teachers are issued a personal login to gain access to the school version of the course. Class materials are available in PDF and Google Docs formats to facilitate viewing and printing in a variety of environments. At the discretion of teachers and schools, the course can also be downloaded and integrated into a variety of LMS platforms and Google Classroom (see guide). You can also sign in to OER Project using Clever! Find out more here.

How is the course structured?

It might seem like 13.8 billion years is a lot to cover in a semester- or year-long course but we’ve structured it in a way that makes it possible…and worth the trip! Big History is made up of eight thresholds. Each represents a moment when the Universe got more complex. We start with the Big Bang, where all of the matter and energy in the Universe originated. The story of these eight thresholds is told over ten units. Within each unit is a series of four to ten lessons broken down into articles, videos, infographics, and activities that reinforce key concepts and develop critical skills. All this is tied together with classroom rituals and routines that facilitate engagement and learning throughout the journey. Every unit includes a guide that walks through the key ideas, vocabulary, possible student misconceptions, lesson plans, and assessments. For a more detailed look at course structure and contents, download the course guide.

What planning and instructional resources are available to teachers?

BHP offers teachers a wide variety of resources and support for course planning, including:

• More than 40 ready-to-teach lesson plans.
• Example course plans from a variety of grade levels, school types, disciplinary approaches, and classroom profiles.
• Teaching guides and supplementary PowerPoint decks.
• A robust online community of educators and experts available to answer questions and share lessons, activities, and instructional strategies.
• Project-based learning (PBL) activities such as Unit 5’s Invent a Species, and Unit 7’s How Many People Could the Earth Support Now and 100 Years from Now?
• Investigations, which are writing activities that help frame some of the big issues tackled in each unit, designed to cultivate critical ELA, research, and persuasive writing skills.
• Score, a free essay-scoring service that empowers students with real-time writing feedback, and provides teachers with classroom- and student-level reports on Investigation writing activities. This frees up teachers’ time for more personalized student instruction.
• Videos with captions and transcripts, complex texts, animations, comic books, infographics, interactive classroom activities, leveled readings, audio readings, and more, thus accommodating a variety of learning and instructional styles.

What assessments are included in the course?

The course gives teachers many opportunities to review student work both formally and informally. All assessments are optional and to be used at the teacher’s discretion. Assessment tools include:

• Rubrics to guide student writing, presentations, and PBL projects.
• Lesson-closing activities such as exit cards, group discussions, peer reviews, and essays,
• Practice-question sets available at the end of each lesson and in end-of-term exams.
• Formal writing activities such as Investigation essays and research papers, which research shows help improve student writing proficiency over the duration of the course. Download our research report to see the results.

What is Score?

For students to really understand how to write well, they need lots of quality feedback on their work. This takes a lot of time that teachers often don’t have. That’s why we developed Score, a free service that provides immediate feedback on student writing for the course’s nine Investigation writing assignments. Score is not a replacement for teachers, but a formative tool that helps students improve as they write, and which provides teachers with the information and time they need to help individual students. Score uses the Revision Assistant machine scoring engine from Turnitin. It’s been “trained” against the OER Project Writing Rubric. So, rather than waiting days or weeks for results, students get immediate feedback that helps them understand and implement the expectations of the rubric as they write. To learn more, check out the Score Guide.

What training and professional development (PD) opportunities are available?

At BHP, we like to say we’re investing in teachers, not textbooks. That’s why we offer so many ways to support and connect teachers through the BHP journey. Teacher supports include:

Teaching Big History online PD

Teaching Big History online professional development is created and moderated by master BHP teachers. Access online any time and move at your own pace through sessions that build course knowledge and skills and get you up and running quickly.

Check out Teaching Big History.

OER Project Teacher Community

The OER Project Teacher Community is the online meeting place of veteran Big History Project teachers, new teachers, and content and technical specialists. In this vibrant community, teachers from around the world connect to ask and answer questions, share lessons and success stories, and start or join conversations about teaching and learning.

Ongoing PD

Regional professional learning consortiums (PLCs) occur throughout the year to provide schools and educators face-to-face professional development, implementation guidance, and direct assistance. Schedules are emailed to registered teachers and posted in the Teacher Community.

We also conduct frequent live PD virtual sessions. These hour-long seminars are designed to help on-board new teachers and help familiarize you with a specific topic in the course.

Check out our professional development schedule here.

Do I have to teach the entire curriculum?

Because the essential thinking and reading and writing skills build on each other throughout the course, the best way to teach Big History is to teach the whole course. However, we want anyone and everyone to use BHP in whatever way best serves them. If that means using bits and pieces to supplement your current curriculum, that’s great too!

What does it cost?

Our goal is to ensure that Big History is taught effectively with no cost to schools. We provide, free of charge:

• All content and courseware
• PD/teacher-training program
• Score essay scoring and reporting
• Access to core project team for support, assistance, and feedback

How does the course align to existing standards?

The Big History Project course is designed to align with the CCSS ELA, C3, and NGSS standards. Check out our Planning Resources hub to find out how BHP aligns to your state’s social studies and ELA standards. If you don’t see your state listed, choose a state that you know shares similar standards with your own. We’re rapidly adding new states so check back soon.

How can Big History fit with my school’s learning environment?

Big History can be tailored in a variety of ways to fit your school’s identity, mission, and infrastructure. Example course plans are available representing a wide variety of teaching environments and school types:

• Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) focus: Rigorous yet accessible content covering basic chemistry, physics, biology, and data literacy and analysis make BHP a great fit for schools with a STEM focus.
• Project-based learning (PBL) focus: PBL activities in BHP allow students to dive deeply and creatively for solutions to driving questions related to complex interdisciplinary issues. Combining PBL and BHP creates meaningful, student-driven learning experiences. We offer ready-to-deploy PBL activities in Unit 5, Unit 7, and Unit 10.
• IB Program compatibility: BHP works well in an IB context, and we’ve even developed an IB course plan to get you started.
• If you’re looking for a high-school world history curriculum, check out one of our free, online World History Project course offerings: Origins to the Present, 1200 to the Present, and 1750 to the Present.

What is the World History Project (WHP)?

We’ve learned from the success of Big History Project. Now we bring you World History Project, another free, online, awesome curriculum in the OER Project family of courses. World History Project is aligned to world history curriculum standards across the United States.

There are three versions of the WHP course: Origins to the Present, 1200 to the Present, and 1750 to the Present. Each version of the course includes carefully scaffolded units and lessons that you can use throughout your school year. The World History Project course assets (activities, readings, videos, writing assessments, and more) will support your students in drawing a line from the past to the present, with an eye to the future.

What will I find in the World History Project curriculum?

WHP has a clear focus on narrative and skill-building. In WHP, students put the narratives of history into a context, looking for evidence to support, extend, and challenge their thinking. The course has a clear focus on reading a variety of texts, including primary sources, as historians do, with a dedicated close-reading approach. World History Project also places a strong emphasis on aligning with AP historical thinking skills and reasoning practices such as contextualization, sourcing, causation, comparison, and continuity and change over time (CCOT), as well as developing writing skills to prepare students for advanced high-school and college work.

What grade level is this course designed for?

While you may choose to use the World History Project (WHP) materials with any grade level you’d like (you know your students best!), we designed it to best fit with many tenth-grade world history standards.

I’m interested in using the WHP course materials next year. Where do I start?

This is probably our favorite question to answer! We strongly suggest taking our Teaching World History course (TWH) as you begin mapping out your school year using the WHP materials. TWH is a free, online professional development course that will provide you with the guidance and support you need to start your year with us. Upon completion of the self-paced course, you’ll receive a certificate for 14 hours of continuing education. In addition to taking TWH, we suggest introducing yourself in our OER Project Teacher Community. Your fellow WHP teachers are waiting to welcome you and answer your questions as you get started!

Teaching WHP Origins to the Present

Teaching WHP 1200 to the Present

Teaching WHP 1750 to the Present

How does World History Project align with state standards?

WHP is designed from the ground up to meet world history standards across the United States. With a careful balance between content and skills, and the flexibility to incorporate content addressing local requirements, WHP is for everybody. Interested in learning how we align with the world history standards of specific states? Check out our Planning Resources hub, where we highlight several of our alignment documents and sample course plans.

What types of scaffolds are available within the World History Project curriculum?

Our skills practice progressions are perfect for scaffolding. Each of our skills (change and continuity over time, contextualization, comparison, sourcing, claim testing, causation, reading, and writing) are introduced early in the course and then spiral through each unit.

We have leveled texts available for the articles in the course, so you have at least three Lexile-leveled texts to choose from when sharing articles with students. Articles have accompanying audio versions while videos come with full transcripts to support comprehension.

Check out our Differentiating Instruction with the OER Project Guide for more detail.

I heard the course has three different versions. Which one is right for me?

Yes, there are three different versions of the course: Origins to the Present, 1200 to the Present and 1750 to the Present. The 1750 course is best for teachers in states like California and New York, where state world history standards begin around the year 1750 CE. If your state standards begin a bit earlier, the 1200 course provides more context for the massive worldwide changes that manifested around 1450 CE. For those whose standards start with early humans, the Origins course is the best choice. And if your world history course begins at a different time altogether? Feel free to use materials from all three versions to create your own scope and sequence for the year. Teaching World History is a great place to start!

I use a learning management system (LMS) to provide assignments and resources to students. Are your materials easily downloadable and accessible through an LMS?

Absolutely! All of our articles and activities are easily downloadable in both PDF and e-pub format. We also have a seamless integration with Google Classroom (learn more here) and other LMS options, as well as Clever SSO. And if you’re looking for student-facing versions of our assets, look no further: We have a student version of both WHP courses, and granting your students access to your virtual WHP classroom is easy. Learn how to add students to your WHP classroom here.

Are you primarily focused on skills or content?

Both! We believe that great courses should provide engaging content that draws upon the insights of multiple disciplines to inform historical inquiry. We know it’s important for students to engage and learn about different perspectives when studying history. WHP students also develop a set of intellectual tools that help them think critically, tie together big ideas, and build informed arguments—and practice these skills across disciplines. Students will spiral through skill-building activities throughout the WHP course content, building their expertise around eight different historical thinking practices: change and continuity over time, contextualization, comparison, sourcing, claim testing, causation, reading, and writing.

How did you incorporate teacher feedback when creating the course materials?

Teacher feedback is extremely important to us. In the 2019/20 school year, we partnered with more than 50 schools to pilot our course materials. Pilot teachers provided feedback on our course content materials so that our articles, videos, and activities represent age-appropriate and teacher-approved materials.

Whom should I reach out to if I have questions about WHP?

You can email us at help@oerproject.com if you have any further questions! We’ll make sure you get the information you need.

What is Project X?

Project X is meant to help students understand and evaluate data that they encounter and to use data in their own arguments. Project X can be taught as a standalone four-week course or as a progression within the WHP Origins and 1750 courses.

We’ve designed materials to guide students step-by-step through how to read charts, evaluate data, and make predictions. Project X has three main components:

1. Data Explorations
2. Three Close Reads for Data, an approach to “reading” charts and other means of displaying data
3. Activities that lead to the final project

What are Data Explorations?

At the core of Project X are 10 exercises we call Data Explorations. These explorations are organized thematically around significant topics of world history. Each Data Exploration includes two elements:

• Articles—Every Data Exploration begins with an introductory article that introduces students to the charts included in that exploration and provides historical context. These articles are written by Max Roser and the team at Our World in Data (OWID). (Learn more about OWID here: https://ourworldindata.org/.)
• Charts—Each Data Exploration centers around a selection of thematic charts from the OWID website. Students should spend the bulk of their time during Data Explorations “reading” the charts.

What grade level is Project X appropriate for?

Project X can be used with students at a variety of age levels. It was designed specifically to work for tenth-grade classrooms.

What is a “course extension”?

Big History Project and World History Project are intended to be full-year or semester-length courses. Our course extensions, like Project X, are designed for teachers who wish to use some of our materials as part of their existing curriculum. Project X can be taught as a standalone four-week module at any point in the school year, which would allow you to take advantage of the same lessons on reading data that are included in our World History Project course.

Our Project X Guide gives some useful pacing suggestions and a brief walkthrough of our teaching methodology.

Can I use Project X with BHP/WHP?

The materials in Project X are already embedded in WHP, so there’s no need to mix and match. While the Project X materials are not as easily aligned with the BHP curriculum, teachers are more than welcome to incorporate any elements they find useful!

Whom should I reach out to if I have questions about Project X?

You can email us at help@oerproject.com if you have any further questions! We’ll make sure you get the information you need.

What is Project Score?

Project Score is an OER Project writing extension that can be used to support social studies writing instruction in a wide variety of classrooms. Generally designed for sixth- through twelfth-grade students, Project Score provides a set of writing activities that have a “choose your own adventure” feel, allowing you to make instructional choices based on where your students could use extra writing support.

What grade levels is Project Score appropriate for?

Project Score is ideal for sixth- through twelfth-grade students.

I’ve seen references to “Score” in some places on the site, and “Project Score” in others. Is there a difference?

Score is an automated essay-scoring tool available in WHP and BHP that can help students significantly improve their writing by giving them frequent, consistent feedback. Teachers can spend less time grading, and more time providing individualized writing instruction. Score uses the Revision Assistant machine scoring engine from Turnitin. It’s been “trained” against the OER Project Writing Rubric. So, rather than waiting days or weeks for results, students get immediate feedback that helps them understand and implement the expectations of the rubric as they write.

Project Score is a set of activities that provide specific rubric-based strategies to address particular aspects of writing. In addition to the rubric-based strategies, you and your students are given access to the Score tool.

What is a “course extension”?

Big History Project and World History Project are intended to be full-year or semester-length courses. Our course extensions, like Project Score, are designed for teachers who wish to use some of our materials as part of their existing curriculum. Project Score can be taught as writing intensive standalone module, or you can weave the assignments into your curriculum throughout the year.

Our Project Score Guide gives a useful overview of the rubrics and activities used in the course extension.

Can I use Project Score with BHP/WHP?

Writing assessments are available in Score in both BHP and WHP, and both courses feature a specific writing progression. However, you are more than welcome to incorporate the warm-up/revision activities, and related tools into your instruction if you would like!

Whom should I reach out to if I have questions about Project Score?

You can email us at help@oerproject.com if you have any further questions! We’ll make sure you get the information you need.