BIG HISTORY

The History of the Universe

How old is Planet Earth?

• Summit Academy’s is 6 years old • You are 14 years old (and counting) • The the United States is 237 years old (1776-

2013) • But Planet Earth is 13.7 billion years old

How long is 13.7 billion years?

• Let’s take a second to get our minds around that figure.

• A million seconds is about 11.5 days. • To count to a billion it would take you 1,000

times as long, about 32 years. • And to count to 13.7 billion would take you

over 400 years.

What about mankind? How long have we existed?

• Mankind has only existed about 200,000 years. That’s a VERY short time compared to the life of planet Earth!

Here’s another way of looking at how short a time humans have existed compared with the life of our planet:

The Empire State Building is 1,454 feet tall. The area represented by human life on planet Earth is only 58 feet! That’s only 1/26th of the building!

An Introduction toPrimary and Secondary Sources

What are primary sources?

• Original records from the past recorded by people who were:– Involved in the event– Witnessed the event, OR– Knew the persons involved in the event

• They can also be objects (artifacts) or visual evidence.

• They give you an idea about what people alive at the time saw or thought about the event.

What are primary sources?

• Keep in mind that a primary source reflects only one point of view and may contain a person’s bias (prejudice) toward an event.

What are primary sources?

Examples of primary sources:

Books, magazines, newspapers

Printed Publications

Examples of primary sources:

Personal Records

Diaries, journals, records

Examples of primary sources:

Visual Materials

Paintings, drawings, sculpture

Examples of primary sources:

Visual Materials

photographs, film, maps

Examples of primary sources:

Oral Histories

Chronicles, memoirs, myths, legends passed down by word of mouth

Examples of primary sources:

Songs and Poems

Examples of primary sources:

Artifacts

Tools, ornaments, objects

Secondary Sources

What are secondary sources?

• Secondary sources are made at a later time.• They include written information by historians

or others AFTER an event has taken place.

What are secondary sources?

Although they can be useful and reliable, they cannot reflect what people who lived at the time thought or felt about the event.But they can represent a more fair account of the event because they can include more than one point of view, or may include information that was unavailable at the time of the event.

Examples of secondary sources:

Textbooks, biographies, histories, newspaper report by someone who was not present

Examples of secondary sources:

Charts, graphs, or images created AFTER the time period.

Name that Source!

The following slides contain examples of primary and secondary sources. See if you can classify each example as a primary or secondary source.

Classify these: primary or secondary?

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Who uses primary and secondary sources to study history?

• SOCIAL SCIENTISTS study all aspects of society—from past events and achievements to human behavior and relationships among groups.

4 Main Types of Social Scientists

• ANTHROPOLOGISTS study the origins and development of human beings and their cultures through oral histories, archaeological evidence, and cultural histories. Some anthropologists study the development of early human beings.

• GEOGRAPHERS study the Earth’s surface, and how location influences the way people live. For example, a geographer would study how a climate influences the kinds of food a civilization produces.

• An ECONOMIST studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Basically, they study the supply and flow of money, resources and goods.

ARCHEOLOGISTS study the physical artifacts ofa culture. They study past human life as shownby fossil relics and the monuments and toolsleft by ancient peoples..

• past human life as shown by fossil relics and the monuments and tools left by ancient peoples