Course Design:
The course will begin with Australopithecus confronting the unknown Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey: The Dawn of Man. Students will consider how the "unkown" affects our consciousness by viewing the discovery of a tool by Australopithecus. The course will then leap to 80,000 B.C.E. and compare the barren culture of Australopithecus to the culture of early Homo sapiens by considering communication, polity, and technology. Then students will map human migration throughout the world, including the last area of the planet to be colonized by humans: Oceania. After establishing human presence on all areas of the world, students will lean about the Five Major Religions; the Renaissance, Discovery, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, Political Revolutions, and the Great Wars of the Twentieth Century.
In addition to selected readings, students will also complete weekly current events, argumentative essays, movie or art assignments, and a research paper on Changes in Human Reproduction
