Big History Project Captures 13.7 Billion Years

The Big History Project, announced at this year’s TED conference, takes on the history of the world — all 13.7 billion years of it — and makes it comprehensible to high school students with the goal of inspiring them to be curious and think critically.

Touted as “the introduction to everything,” Big History Project is based on a series of lectures given by Australian professor David Christian, and co-founded by Bill Gates. After listening to Professor Christian’s lectures, Gates decided that their eloquence and all-encompassing direction would make them an essential resource for high school students because they were able to traverse the boundaries between science and history, making him view both disciplines in a new light.

The website describes the importance of the project in these terms:

Everything has a history: each person, plant, animal and object, our planet, and the entire universe.

Each history offers valuable insights. Together, they reveal even more. Big history weaves evidence and insights from many scientific and historical disciplines into a single, accessible origin story – one that explores who we are, how we got here, how we are connected to everything around us, and where we may be heading.

… Big history links and uses many different forms of knowledge, from astronomy to geology, biology and history.  By doing so, it offers a coherent understanding of the world and the universe, and a more unified account of the past.  It also shows how ideas and insights from one discipline can illuminate what is studied in other disciplines.

Big History is a completely philanthropic project, meaning that schools that choose to participate in the 2012-2013 pilot of this program will be given the materials for free. So far, the project is only open to schools in the United States and Australia, but if it is successful, Gates and Christian hope to make it a global endeavor.

Big History Project