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Teaching the Big Bang

Bridgette OConnor

What do Big History teachers think about at the start of the school year? Big questions, of course!

Where did we come from? Where are we going? Why are we here?*

You can’t teach 13.8 billion years of the Universe’s history without thinking about its origins. You’ll be amazed at the questions your students ask when they consider if it all started with a Big Bang, a Big Bounce, or maybe a Big Smush.

How do you kick off the school year? Do your students love to contemplate about our place in the Universe by reading origin stories from around the world, examining what we know about the observable Universe, or thinking about new discoveries on dark matter?

Help out new Big History teachers, and share your go-to start of school favorites and any wacky or insightful questions you’ve gotten from students so far!

 

*Answer key: From summer vacation. You’re going to homeroom. You’re here to learn Big History.

  • Great question. Where to even begin… And yes… we’re still coming back from summer vacation. And mostly when I ask what students did with their summers, the answer is something like… “nothing…” and sleep…” Weary 

    Origin stories is going to be our first stop as we head into real content. Putting the Big Bang side by side with the origin stories of various faith traditions I think is a great way to model that while we are not discarding faith, we are taking the claims of Big Bang cosmology seriously and using that as our starting point. Once we’re there this is also a great time to talk about Faith and Cosmology and the different approaches to balancing them - conflict, contrast, and convergence. Many of my students come from faith traditions so this is a great way to break down the barriers and walls that students may have about learning the Big Bang. Maybe I will bring in some of these new discoveries (i.e. Dark Matter) because I think it also sets the precedent that we're still learning...

    Before that, I’m currently introducing all of the terminology  and setting the stage - what is scale? What is a a threshold? How is a threshold different from things that just happened in the past (This is a question that came up in my classroom today!) … and we’re just easing our way in. 

    Would love to hear how others’ approach to the beginning of the year differs. Hope it’s going well for everyone out there! 

  •   like  I start with origin stories because they help students connect with the idea that every society has its own way of explaining the beginning of everything. From there, I introduce the concepts of thresholds of increasing complexity and begin our exploration of Big History.

    The Big Bang and the origin of the universe are among the topics my students enjoy the most, particularly because they are naturally curious about how everything began. My students also enjoy creating 3-D models because these hands-on activities help them visualize and better understand conceptual categories that can otherwise be difficult to internalize. Here are one of my favorites. 

     

  • in reply to Laura Massa

    Love these responses,  and  !

    I always found that starting with origin stories helped students put the BH story into perspective. My students also got a lot out of the Cosmology and Faith article.

    P.S. Those 3-D models are absolutely fantastic, Laura!!!