Unit 1, Lesson 13: Thresholds in Big History
Learning Target: I can explain the course themes of complexity, thresholds, and Goldilocks conditions
Class Activities:
1. Students picked up the "Thresholds in Big History" handout as they walked into the classroom. They copied down a definition for "complexity" on their vocab sheets, and then answered some questions at the top of their handout.
The definition of complexity is: "A quality of an object or system that has many parts arranged in connection with one another so that new properties emerge"
The do now helped students understand that definition. A car is more complex than a car engine, for instance, because a car is the engine plus all its other parts, able to do something that the engine can't do alone.
2. We watched a brief clip about thresholds in Big History. That clip is at the bottom of this entry. Basically, students learned that the universe is typically ruled by entropy, which is nature's preference to move from order to disorder. Examples include rotting apples, burning paper, etc. A burning paper turns to ash, but ash cannot become paper. However, sometimes, the conditions are just right, and nature seems to defy its own law. This allows us to reach new levels of complexity, or thresholds.
3. On their handouts, students copied down an equation that Big History uses to organize these levels of complexity:
Ingredients + Goldilocks Conditions (when things are just right) = new levels of complexity.
We used life on Earth as an example of a level of complexity. Ingredients would be water, an atmosphere, gravity, etc. But without the Goldilocks conditions of being the perfect distance from the sun, we would never had had life.
Students practiced coming up with their own examples on the back of the handout. I checked it, but didn't collect it.
Papers handed in today:
None
Homework:
Timeline due Monday
Class Activities:
1. Students picked up the "Thresholds in Big History" handout as they walked into the classroom. They copied down a definition for "complexity" on their vocab sheets, and then answered some questions at the top of their handout.
The definition of complexity is: "A quality of an object or system that has many parts arranged in connection with one another so that new properties emerge"
The do now helped students understand that definition. A car is more complex than a car engine, for instance, because a car is the engine plus all its other parts, able to do something that the engine can't do alone.
2. We watched a brief clip about thresholds in Big History. That clip is at the bottom of this entry. Basically, students learned that the universe is typically ruled by entropy, which is nature's preference to move from order to disorder. Examples include rotting apples, burning paper, etc. A burning paper turns to ash, but ash cannot become paper. However, sometimes, the conditions are just right, and nature seems to defy its own law. This allows us to reach new levels of complexity, or thresholds.
3. On their handouts, students copied down an equation that Big History uses to organize these levels of complexity:
Ingredients + Goldilocks Conditions (when things are just right) = new levels of complexity.
We used life on Earth as an example of a level of complexity. Ingredients would be water, an atmosphere, gravity, etc. But without the Goldilocks conditions of being the perfect distance from the sun, we would never had had life.
Students practiced coming up with their own examples on the back of the handout. I checked it, but didn't collect it.
Papers handed in today:
None
Homework:
Timeline due Monday
9global_thresholds_in_big_history_handout.pdf | |
File Size: | 160 kb |
File Type: |
The original video is too big for me to upload here. But I'm adding a link to another one that you may find useful.