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BEFORE YOU WATCH: Era 1 Overview

Use the “Three Close Reads” approach as you watch the video below.
Use the “Three Close Reads” approach as you watch the video below (next in the lineup!). If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here.

First read: preview and skimming for gist

Before you watch, you should skim the transcript first. The skim should be very quick and give you the gist (general idea) of what the video is about. You should be looking at the title, thumbnails, pictures, and first few seconds of the video for the gist.

Second read: key ideas and understanding content

Now that you’ve skimmed the video transcript and taken a quick peek at the video, you should preview the questions you will be answering. These questions will help you get a better understanding of the concepts and arguments that are presented in the video. Keep in mind that when you watch the video, it is a good idea to write down any vocab you read or hear that is unfamiliar to you.
By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:
  1. What kinds of narratives about the past might you encounter, according to the video?
  2. Why should we start a course in world history before humans existed?
  3. The video introduces one historian’s account of history, David Christian’s Big History. What does Christian argue were the big transitions, or changes, in his account?
  4. The video also introduces the story of Ardi, who was one of our ancestors but not yet a modern human. Ardi’s life seems very different from ours. What were some of these differences?
  5. Ardi and her species did share at least one attribute with modern humans, however. What was it?

Third read: evaluating and corroborating

Finally, here are some questions that will help you focus on why this video matters and how it connects to other content you’ve studied.
At the end of the third read, you should be able to respond to this question:
  1. One of the goals of this course is that the information you learn becomes usable for you. Can you think of any ways in which you might use the information you learned in this video at some point, despite the fact that this is the most distant history in the whole course?
Now that you know what to look for, it’s time to watch! Remember to return to these questions once you’ve finished watching.

Want to join the conversation?

  • blobby green style avatar for user samuelligolf
    好难
    (4 votes)
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  • leaf green style avatar for user vicky o'connor
    Is there going to be a transcript?
    (2 votes)
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  • hopper cool style avatar for user zhiwenglim
    My answers:
    1. Books, documentaries, movies, monuments, buildings, oral history of older people, politicians

    2. Humans are not the only actors in the story of our past. As We live in a world that shapes who we are and what we can do [geography, weather, plants, animals]

    3.
    Start of Big History: Big Bang Over 13.8 billion years ago
    First stars & galaxies formed: 13.6 billion years ago
    New chemical elements are formed: 12 billion years ago
    Earth & Solar System is formed: 4.5 billion years ago
    Life began on earth: 3.7 billion years ago
    Physically modern humans emerged: 250,000 years ago
    End: Ends by considering the history of the future.

    4. Lack language or physical culture, no societies with houses or tools, forage to nourish their bodies, unable to communicate with each other beyond an extended family, didn’t trade or preserve knowledge beyond their instincts.

    5. They lacked large, sharp canine teeth, a feature that connect with apes or a dominant male in a group. So historians suggest they bonded in pairs or maintained long term monogamous relationships.

    6. I can use the history of the past to make fiction that describe how a new world is created or how the previous extinct generation loses their history due to certain evolutionary factors.
    (3 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user mpascueldiego
    ¿Cuales eran las principales cosas que carecían?
    (2 votes)
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  • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Dilara
    Huh what abt history
    (1 vote)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user ca'liayah.hayes
    well i like it
    (1 vote)
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