#ThePast

How did human life change throughout time?

Through this unit of study (#ThePast), we are learning:

- to examine the past as social scientists (historians, archaeologists, geographers, etc.)
- how the theory of evolution helped shape our curious understanding of human changes over time
- that time is measured like a negative number line in math
- that humans migrated for various reasons and over an extended period of time
- that agriculture altered human existence and the landscape of our world

History is a Mystery

Human Happenings

Time to Learn

Moving Day

Feeding Time

A: HISTORY...What is it?

What is history?

History helps us make sense of the world. History is the memory of communities, peoples, and nations. Without history, individuals and whole countries would lose their sense of direction. Humans constantly use their knowledge of the past to make sense of what is happening today.

History is also an academic discipline. It is a systematic way of using evidence to make sense of the past.

When you think about it, the past is not an easy thing to study. After all, it’s not here any longer for anyone to observe directly, so historians turn to many kinds of evidence to describe and understand the past. Old documents, maps, tools, ruins, and many other kinds of evidence fascinate them. They want to know who created them, what they were created for, and what they can teach us about the past.

OER - Understanding history in the future

How should we examine history?

Looking at history can seem a bit daunting - there's sooooo much of it! We will use multiple lenses and approaches to our study of history and the past:

We will look at the "Big History" and the overall picture and impact of events over time. We will look at smaller thresholds and frameworks of history that indicate moments of change. We will look at individual and specific examples within those frameworks to gain additional understanding and comprehend the impact of smaller moments on the larger picture.

Maybe most importantly, we will consider how our changing views of the past (due to new evidence, artifacts, information, etc.) will alter our vision of history in the future. What will yesterday look like tomorrow?

Past > Present > Future...All part of HISTORY!

B: How do we know about the past?

Artifacts, Historians, Geographers, and more...

Prehistoric humans left artifacts that give us clues about how they once lived. Social scientists act like detectives, carefully examining ancient art and artifacts and then drawing conclusions about early humans. As each new clue is discovered, social scientists may need to change their interpretations. Because much of our understanding comes from the time before written history, these interpretations are hypotheses about the past and the people who lived then.

History, then, is much more than a listing of “facts.” Some people have even described history as an ongoing argument about the past. Why does the argument go on? Sometimes historians find new evidence, such as an old document or the ruins of an ancient city. Discoveries like these may lead them to rethink old explanations. Sometimes historians take a fresh look at existing evidence and see things that others have overlooked. As they do so, they may explain events in a different way.

C: Solving mysteries with evidence

History is an ongoing argument

To make sense of the past, historians must weigh the available evidence and try to figure out what the facts are. Then they need to stitch the facts together to answer the questions that interest them. In doing this, they must use their judgment; that means their own viewpoints come into play.

As a result, historians argue all the time. They argue about what the facts really are. They also argue about how to interpret the facts.