The Human Identity: A Science-Social Studies High School Elective

The Human Identity is a course that explores the primary questions human beings have always asked about their origins and development. The course uses an interdisciplinary approach designed to take students beyond the cubicle of single subjects, allowing students to link disciplines in order to make meaningful connections. As “big history” The Human Identity combines history with the social and physical sciences using the concepts and rigorous methodology of each discipline. The Human Identity explores the chronological study of Earth, its relationship to life and the development of human beings. The topics in the course include: cosmology, origins of life, paleontology, paleo-anthropology, human evolution and archaeology. My purpose will be to convey the importance of teaching the topics in this course to high school students and to describe the students’ learning outcomes that I’ve witnessed during the ten years the course has been offered.