Settling Planet Earth -- Early Migrations in World History

1. Students will learn a historical overview of human origin in Africa followed by a general pattern of migration by which we came to occupy the habitable parts of the Earth.
2. Students will be introduced to principles of geology, climatology, biology, anthropology, physics, and genetics that made possible the discovery of this part of the human past.
3. Students will learn examples of the practical impacts of science for understanding human history and the technology being used by businesses like Ancestry.com.
4. Students will learn that newly emerging discoveries continue to modify and update previous discoveries.

This subject is part of world history that I teach routinely to college freshmen. I have also written on the topic in two books I have published that dealt in part with the relationship of science, the Bible, and religious beliefs. They are "Talking Back to the Bible: A Historian's Approach to Bible Study" and "Values, Truth, and Spiritual Danger: Progressive Christianity in the Age of Trump."

55 minutes per week in class, and maybe some time outside of class.

Graphics and other illustrations from the websites of the Smithsonian Institute and National Geographic. Examples include: (1) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-human-migration-13561/ (2) https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/their-footsteps-human-migration-out-africa/ (3) https://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/global-human-journey/. Another example is The Human Journey site,  https://humanjourney.us/discovering-our-distant-ancestors-section/out-of-africa/#.

Sources about ongoing discoveries, such as debates about the role of ice ages in settling the Americas, will be included. Examples are: (1) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/humans-colonized-americas-along-coast-not-through-ice-180960103/; and (2) https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/fossil-footprints-show-humans-north-america-21000-years-ago-rcna2169

Reference books used as background include: (1) Spencer Wells, The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey; (2) Walter Alvarez, A Most Improbable Journey; (3) Richard Klein, The Dawn of Culture; and (4) several world history textbooks I have used for teaching the subject to college freshmen.