Table of Contents

List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments Introduction PART ONE: THE CASE FOR BIG HISTORY 1. What Is Big History?--Richard B. Simon 2. Big History and the Goals of Liberal Education--Mojgan Behmand 3. Summer Institutes: Collective Learning as Meta-Education--Thomas Burke 4. Assessing Big History Outcomes: Or, How to Make Assessment Inspiring--Mojgan Behmand 5. Big History at Other Institutions--Mojgan Behmand, Esther Quaedackers, and Seohyung Kim PART TWO: A PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY FOR TEACHING BIG HISTORY 6. Teaching Complexity in a Big History Context--Richard B. Simon 7. Teaching Threshold 1: The Big Bang--Richard B. Simon 8. Teaching Threshold 2: The Formation of Stars and Galaxies--Kiowa Bower 9. Teaching Threshold 3: Heavier Chemical Elements and the Life Cycle of Stars--Richard B. Simon 10. Teaching Threshold 4: The Formation of Our Solar System and Earth--Neal Wolfe 11. Teaching Threshold 5: The Evolution of Life on Earth--James Cunningham 12. Teaching Threshold 6: The Rise of Homo sapiens--Cynthia Taylor 13. Teaching Threshold 7: The Agrarian Revolution--Martin Anderson 14. Teaching Threshold 8: Modernity and Industrialization--Richard B. Simon 15. Threshold 9? Teaching Possible Futures--Martin Anderson, J. Daniel May, Richard B. Simon, Neal Wolfe, Kiowa Bower, Philip Novak, and Debbie Daunt 16. Reflective Writing in the Big History Course--Jaime Castner 17. Activities for Multiple Thresholds 18. Igniting Critical Curiosity: Fostering Information Literacy through Big History--Ethan Annis, Amy Gilbert, Anne Reid, Suzanne Roybal, and Alan Schut 19. A Little Big History of Big History--Cynthia Stokes Brown PART THREE: BIG HISTORY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS 20. Big History at Dominican: An Origin Story--Philip Novak 21. Teaching Big History or Teaching about Big History? Big History and Religion--Harlan Stelmach 22. The Case for Awe--Neal Wolfe Conclusion Annotated Bibliography of Big History Texts and Resources List of Contributors Index

About the Author

Richard B. Simon is Adjunct Professor of English at Dominican University of California, instructor of English at City College of San Francisco, and Contributing Editor at Relix magazine. Mojgan Behmand is Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Dominican University of California. She is also Associate Professor of English and former Director of General Education and First Year Experience. Thomas Burke is Assistant Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Dominican University of California.