1. Welcome to World History I

2. World History I Today’s Objectives  Students will become familiar with the grading policies and procedures that will be followed throughout the year.  Students will become familiar with each other and Mr. MacDonald.  Students will understand how briefly humans have been on Earth in comparison with other species.

3. World History I Objectives  Students in this class will be able to obtain a minimum score of 400 on the S.O.L. Test for World History I.  Students will recognize the relevance of the material that they are learning and understand how events of the past continue to affect us to the modern day.  Students will become actively involved in the learning process that takes place on a daily basis.  Students will develop and utilize critical thinking and critical reading skills.

4. Contact Information  I encourage you to contact me at any point during the year if you have any questions or problems.  Email address is: macdonjl@pwcs.edu  I will be happy to answer any questions that you have, work with you after school, during CIE, or do anything else I can do to help you to succeed.

5. Rules and Expectations

6. Note Card On the Front: Name Age 1 hobby/thing you like to do Favorite type of music 2 characteristics to describe yourself Goal for the year On the Back: On the back: 1 interesting/unique fact On the back: If you have a seating preference/personal reason why you can’t sit near someone or in a certain area of the room, let me know.

7. Questions to Consider: How did we get here? How did you get to this classroom? How did you get to school this morning? How did you end up living in Virginia? How did your parents end up in Virginia? How did your ancestors end up in this country? How did the first humans get to this country?

8. 1.Approximately 14 billion years ago the Universe was formed. 2.Approximately 10 billion years after that, 4.5 billion years ago, Earth formed.

9. 3. A series of varied life forms inhabited the earth for 4 billion years.  These would include things like bacteria (3.5 billion years ago) and dinosaurs (230 million years ago.

10. 4. The earliest humans began to appear 4.4 million years ago. 5. Humans began to form into civilizations approximately 5,500 years ago.

11. 6. If we were to look at a clock of world history and say that 12 hours represent all 4.5 billion years that the Earth has been in existence,  humans would only make up 3.52 seconds of those twelve hours.

12. Horseshoe crabs have been here for 250 million years.

14. 7. The point here is that the fact that you are sitting in this classroom right at this moment has been 14 billion years in the making.