simka2 Posted August 20, 2010 Share Posted August 20, 2010 Okay...I'm embarressed!!!! Would you consider a unit study of pre-history (big bang-dinos-early hominds) science or history? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted August 20, 2010 Share Posted August 20, 2010 We're doing it as part of history, just because of the chronological aspect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Amanda~ Posted August 20, 2010 Share Posted August 20, 2010 I have been having this same problem/thought process; some history books put it in history, but I think it should go with science... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted August 20, 2010 Share Posted August 20, 2010 It's really both, so we study it as both. BB, the origins of universe, etc. are more into the science section, but evolution of human species and alike can be really grouped with history too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallory Posted August 20, 2010 Share Posted August 20, 2010 We did it this summer as a rather informal unit study. We are studying ancients and biology this year so it was a nice lead in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted August 20, 2010 Share Posted August 20, 2010 Both! Or... it could depend on your focus. You could emphasize the science - the big bang, the evolution of life on earth, the various species, the mass extinctions, the early hominids. Or you could emphasize the history - what life was like for early man, the interactions between early homo sapiens and Neanderthals, the early migrations, the move from hunter gatherers to agriculture... Or... it could just be wherever you fit it in. Or... you could decide it's just worth learning about and not worry about where it fits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaurainMD Posted August 20, 2010 Share Posted August 20, 2010 Personally, I don't consider it history until there are humans involved. :) So I do Big Bang/dinosaurs/evolution as part of science, and early man/beginnings of agriculture/early civilizations as part of history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simka2 Posted August 20, 2010 Author Share Posted August 20, 2010 Thanks guys! We had already started SOTW 1, but I was wanting to a more indepth study of origins and dinosaurs. Before we moved on, somehow it felt like our foundation was off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted August 20, 2010 Share Posted August 20, 2010 I did a bit of it in K before we started SOTW 1 (as part of a broad basics--intro to holidays, some basic American history, etc). The big bang, formation of the earth, etc, was part of earth/space science, dino/mammal/etc were part of biology when we talked about animals. This time around (between 4th and 5th), I've gone more in depth on hominid evolution as a summer study leading into the Ancients. We've enjoyed several movies and documentaries from Netflix on the topic, as well as a number of books, a field trip to a local natural history museum with a nice display on prehistory, etc. For the summer, I've counted it as a combination of science and history/social studies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted August 20, 2010 Share Posted August 20, 2010 We did it last year and considered it both. It was fun, but we spent a little too long on it and are still trying to finish SOTW 1 now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorMom Posted August 20, 2010 Share Posted August 20, 2010 Technically, pre-history isn't actually history. History is defined as the study of the written record. So - IMHO, it's science. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarlaS Posted August 20, 2010 Share Posted August 20, 2010 Technically, pre-history isn't actually history. History is defined as the study of the written record. So - IMHO, it's science. :iagree: We would have no knowledge of it without science. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ester Maria Posted August 20, 2010 Share Posted August 20, 2010 Technically, pre-history isn't actually history. History is defined as the study of the written record. So - IMHO, it's science. While I agree that BB and origins of the universe and life on Earth is definitely in the camp of science, I'm not so sure such an exact line can be drawn when it comes to the evolution of the human species and mark history only events that followed the beginning of written record. Our textbooks included some things before that event that deal with the evolution of humans, places where ancestors of modern men were found, etc. Those were short units, without getting too technical, but I believe they can be grouped with history too, not only science. Generally, though, I agree with your division. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 Personally, I don't consider it history until there are humans involved. :) So I do Big Bang/dinosaurs/evolution as part of science, and early man/beginnings of agriculture/early civilizations as part of history. This is how I plan to divide it just for convenience. We will be doing History and Science notebooks and I need to know where to file things. ;) I know when I was in school (way back when) we did start our History classes with a very brief (like one chapter) study of early hunter/gatherer/nomadic peoples and what led to the "discovery" of agriculture, all of which was referred to as Pre-History. History was considered to start with written record - I never understood why cave paintings were not considered "written"? I don't think we touched on early (pre-homo sapien) man/evolution of man in any of my classes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 A lot of people do it as history, which makes a lot of sense for following the chronology. But I really feel that it belongs in science. History comes to us in writing and art. Pre-history comes to us based on scientific theory that continues to change as we gather more information. What we know about dinosaurs has developed over a long period of scientific study. But the story of Gilgamesh is the story of Gilgamesh. You can continue to analyze the story to try to understand the people, but the story doesn't change. It is what it is. With a science teacher dh, we are a very science-oriented family, so the distinction is important to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calandalsmom Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 I really feel like the division is artificial here. But I don't often feel the need to label and divide and name my learning all the time because Im comfortable with the idea of learning as a lifestyle. (Which is not to say those with a more traditionally academic focus are not comfortable with learning as a lifestyle. Just that Im ok with wishy washy in this area of naming or labeling.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 We spent our entire 2009 summer on it. I called it Prehistory, but I actually thought of it more as Sciencej. We learned so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 Yes. (Science and history, depending on the aspects you study....) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbrandonsmom Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 What would be used for a unit study at that age? Ds is liking dinos now, so it would be good to read about them I think. We picked up a Magic School Bus dino book the other day that talks about them. He made a skeleton of an Apatasaur-his fav one, after seeing them at Dinosaur World. That place is pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommy4ever Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 :bigear: I"d love to have a Unit study for this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSheep Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 We did it this summer as a rather informal unit study. We are studying ancients and biology this year so it was a nice lead in. That's just what we did! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorMom Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 (edited) In my first semester taking graduate classes in history (specifically in Historiography) - we had a week long debate on this subject :) There is a difference between studying the past (everything that has ever happened) and history. History, academically, only studies the written evidence of humanity's past. Archaeology studies ancient pieces, anthropology studies man's societal evolution. The past - before written history - cannot technically be studied as "history". It can be studied as anthropology, geology, archaeology, etc.... Sorry - I'm big on accurate semantics as I think fuzzy semantics cause a lot of misunderstandings :D ETA - To the OP this is NOT a silly question! I learned a lot in that class, and had never differentiated between the "past" and "History" before I took it :) Edited August 21, 2010 by SailorMom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 Here's one lapbook I've seen. I haven't used it, so am not sure about its contents, but perhaps at least some of it is usable.... http://www.homeschoolshare.com/dinosaurs.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 Unless you have to break it down for reporting purposes, I don't think it matters. It's all part of the narrative story of our universe and planet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted August 21, 2010 Share Posted August 21, 2010 We have done both. For the first history rotation with both of my kids, we started with the big bang and moved forward. For the middle school rotation we just started with wherever the book started (I think it was slightly before recorded history). And then the older stuff gets moved to earth science and biology. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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