Big History

Stars form when huge clouds of atoms are crushed together by gravity, generating immense heat and light.

Planets are different. They’re cool enough for atoms to arrange themselves in complex ways, creating oceans, mountains, glaciers and thousands of different rocks and minerals 🌍

That diversity is what makes planets like Earth so remarkable. And as far as we know, at least one planet has produced something even more extraordinary - life.

Created by Emeritus Professor David Christian, Big History helps children understand ideas like this in a clear, connected way, showing how the Universe built the conditions for our world to exist.

✔ Expert-led learning designed for curious 9–12 year olds
✔ Helps children connect ideas across science and the natural world
✔ One-off cost — no subscription, lifetime access

For millions of years, Earth has moved through periodic Ice Ages - long cold phases lasting up to 100,000 years, followed by shorter, warmer periods ❄️

These shifts were driven by natural factors like changes in Earth’s orbit and the build-up of ice sheets near the poles, which affected how much sunlight reached the surface.

The last Ice Age ended around 12,000 years ago, bringing warmer, wetter and more stable conditions, setting the stage for the world humans would go on to build.

Created by Emeritus Professor David Christian, Big History helps children understand changes like this as part of one connected story - placing them within the broader history of our planet across deep time.

✔ Expert-led learning designed for curious 9–12 year olds
✔ Builds big-picture thinking across science and history
✔ One-off cost — no subscription, lifetime access

👉 Explore the Big History course via our website

By studying how fast the Universe is expanding, scientists can work backwards to estimate when it all began.

The answer? Almost 14 billion years ago — a number so large our minds can barely imagine it.

Created by Emeritus Professor David Christian, Big History helps children make sense of ideas like this as part of one clear, connected story.

✔ Expert-led learning for curious 9–12 year olds
✔ One-off cost — no subscription, lifetime access

👉 Explore the Big History course via our website

DNA contains billions of precisely arranged atoms — a code containing the instructions every living organism needs to survive and reproduce.

But reproduction isn’t perfect. Some copies are slightly better or worse at surviving than others. The more successful ones tend to have more offspring, and over many generations, this process shapes and diversifies life.

Over billions of years, this mechanism — known as natural selection — gave rise to every species of bacteria, fungi, plant and animal alive today.

Created by Emeritus Professor David Christian, Big History helps children understand ideas like this in a clear, connected way — linking biology, evolution and the story of life into one engaging narrative.

✔ Expert-led learning designed for curious 9–12 year olds
✔ Helps children connect ideas across science and history
✔ One-off cost — no subscription, lifetime access

👉 Explore the Big History course via our website

Almost 5,000 years ago, the first true cities began to appear in what is now Iraq.

The walled city of Uruk may have housed up to 50,000 permanent residents — the largest human community that had ever existed. People also travelled in from surrounding towns and villages to work, trade and visit the city’s temples.
These early cities changed everything about how humans lived and organised themselves.

Created by Emeritus Professor David Christian, Big History helps children understand moments like this as part of one connected story — linking human history, geography and culture into one clear, engaging narrative.

✔ Expert-led learning designed for curious 9–12 year olds
✔ Helps children connect ideas across history and society
✔ One-off cost — no subscription, lifetime access

👉 Explore the Big History course via our website

Hundreds of millions of years ago, life began one of its biggest transformations — moving from the oceans onto dry land.

To survive, plants and animals had to evolve entirely new ways of living. Some developed tough skins to stop themselves drying out, while others evolved skeletons, lungs and eventually legs to help them move and breathe on land.

Over time, fish-like creatures became the ancestors of amphibians and reptiles, helping shape the living world we know today.

Created by Emeritus Professor David Christian, Big History helps children explore stories like this in a simple, connected way — linking evolution, Earth and the history of life into one engaging narrative.

✔ Expert-led learning designed for curious 9–12 year olds
✔ Helps children connect ideas across science and history
✔ One-off cost — no subscription, lifetime access

Two thousand years ago, much of the world still lived in small, isolated communities. But within the great agrarian empires, growing networks were already connecting people through trade, travel and the exchange of ideas.

Goods, resources and information moved between villages, towns and distant regions - laying the foundations for the interconnected world we live in today.

Created by Emeritus Professor David Christian, Big History helps children understand how human societies became more connected over time - linking history, geography and culture into one clear, engaging story.

✔ Expert-led learning designed for curious 9–12 year olds
✔ Builds big-picture thinking across history and geography
✔ One-off cost — no subscription, lifetime access

Check it out via our website.

Galaxies like the Milky Way won’t stay the same forever.

Over immense stretches of time, the gas and dust needed to create new stars will slowly run out. Eventually, fewer stars will form and galaxies will gradually grow darker.

Scientists believe these changes may unfold over timescales far longer than humans can truly imagine.

Ideas like this help children think beyond everyday life — encouraging curiosity, perspective and wonder about the Universe we live in.

Big History is a short, engaging online course designed for curious 9–12 year olds, connecting space, science and human history into one clear story.

✔ Builds curiosity about the Universe
✔ Helps children think in big-picture ideas
✔ One-off cost — no subscription, lifetime access

👉 Explore the Big History course via our website

What would Australia have looked like thousands of years ago?

In many regions, you might have seen small communities gathering food, fishing, hunting and carefully managing the land and waterways around them.

Along Australia’s southern coast, some communities even created sophisticated canal systems stocked with eels.

Moments like this help children understand the diversity and ingenuity of early human societies.

Big History is a short, engaging online course designed for curious 9–12 year olds, connecting human history, geography and culture into one clear story.

✔ Helps children understand how people lived in different environments
✔ Builds curiosity about human history and cultures
✔ One-off cost — no subscription, lifetime access

👉 Explore the Big History course via our website

Billions of years ago, rising oxygen levels transformed the planet, triggering extreme conditions that most life couldn’t survive.

Big History helps children understand how life adapts to change, and how events like this shaped our world.

✔ Short, engaging episodes
✔ Designed for curious kids
✔ One-off cost of just $30

Explore the Big History course via our website

Why do things fall apart over time?

All complex systems depend on energy and the right conditions - and eventually, those change.

Big History helps children understand ideas like this in a simple, connected way.

✔ Designed for curious kids
✔ Short, engaging episodes
✔ One-off cost of $30

Find out more on our website