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World History Origins

World History Project Origins 1200 CE is a free world history course that helps students connect past and present. It includes ready-to-use lessons, activities, articles, videos, and data explorations. Students build critical-thinking, historical reasoning, and claim-testing skills as they study global change from 1200 CE to the present. The course has nine units. It also offers flexible pathways, customization, and free support for teachers.

  • World History Project Origins 1200 CE is a free, standards-aligned curriculum covering world history from 1200 CE to today.
  • The curriculum includes ready-to-use teaching tools, inquiry materials, and customization options for varied classroom needs.
  • The course emphasizes critical thinking, historical reasoning, and connections between past and present global developments.
  • World History Project Origins is organized into nine units that examine interconnection, transformation, globalization, and claim testing.
  • OER Project supports teachers with free implementation help, professional learning, and supplemental classroom resources.
Teaching Tools

World history is the story of the connections that link humanity across the globe and throughout our long history. Learn the skills you’ll need to think like a historian as you journey through 250,000 years of human history and understand how it shaped your world.

Unit 1 • 4 Lessons

Origins of History
Everything has a history. This course begins with the history of you and expands to the history of the entire world.

Unit 2 • 5 Lessons

Early Humans
For most of our 250,000-year history, all humans were foragers. But then, about 12,000 years ago, some people started farming. Was it all a huge mistake?

Unit 3 • 5 Lessons

Early Agrarian Societies
The Agricultural Revolution set the stage for the development of complex societies. Farming villages developed into the first cities, states, and empires. Local trade networks expanded, linking distant societies together. The world would never be the same.

Unit 4 • 6 Lessons

Empires and Belief Systems
The rise of new empires and the emergence and spread of portable belief systems introduced a new level of complexity into human societies. Often, belief systems and empires helped each other spread to new places.

Unit 5 • 7 Lessons

Regional Webs
The fall of Rome and the Han Dynasty sent shockwaves through the ancient world. Were these collapses followed by a dark age, or did a period of restructuring lead to a new era of prosperity and innovation?

Unit 6 • 10 Lessons

The First Global Age
The first global age featured opportunity and tragedy, and it forever altered the course of human history. Massive land empires and new oceanic empires linked the two hemispheres into an increasingly global system, both ecological and economic.

Unit 7 • 10 Lessons

The Long Nineteenth Century
The long nineteenth century transformed how people understood childhood, work, gender, and the very concept of human liberty. Driven by new ideas and new machines, this 164-year period created the world we live in today.

Unit 8 • 9 Lessons

Global Conflict
The historian Erik Hobsbawm called the period from 1914 to 1991 an “Age of Extremes.” Examine the causes and consequences of the twentieth century’s global conflicts and grapple with the horrific cost of total war.

Unit 9 • 8 Lessons

Globalization
What does it mean to live in a global world? Explore the promises and problems of global connections, and how nationalism and identity continue to shape how people experience the world.

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Teaching This Course

Origins to Present

World History Origins Course Overview External link

Learn about the specific periodization, unit structure and learning objectives, and frames narratives of World History Origins.
Explore History Stories

World History Info Session External link

This short video walks you through the how and why of teaching OER Project: World History.

Course Guide icon

OER Project: World History Guide External link

An overview of the approach, structure, and materials in all OER Project: World History courses.
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OER Project Teacher Community External link

Connect with other teachers in the OER Project Online Teacher Community.

Course Guide icon

Historical Thinking Skills Guide External link

Help your students develop the skills they need to analyze history and think like a historian.

Practice Progression Placement icon

WH Origins Practice Progression Placement External link

Quickly locate any and all of the historical thinking skills activities in this course.
Course Guide icon

Writing Guide External link

Strategies for instructing and supporting both formal and informal writing.

Course Plan icon

Origins Course Outline External link

An outline of all course materials to help you find exactly what you’re looking for.