GEO1-2277

Period 2, 2023-2024

Natuurwetenschap en Innovatiemanagement

FACULTY OF GEOSCIENCES
UTRECHT UNIVERSITY

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 1. TABEL OF CONTENTS
Self-explanatory.

2. GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION

a) Course information
Course title: Big History
Course code: GEO1-2277
Number of EC points: 7,5 ECTS
Level: 1
Term & year: Period 2, 2023-2024
Start: 14 nov 2022
End: 27 jan 2023
Language: English and Dutch
Link to Blackboard:

Course coordinator:

Dr. Gaston Heimeriks

- email address: g.j.heimeriks@uu.nl
- building and room no.: Vening Meinesz A floor 7
- office hours: on request
-
Lecturers:

Dr. ir. C.G.M. (Kees) Klein Goldewijk

- email address: c.g.m.kleingoldewijk@uu.nl
- building and room no.: Vening Meinesz A floor 8
- office hours: on request

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Rebecca Hemmes MSc.
- email address: r.a.hemmes@uu.nl
- building and room no.: Vening Meinesz A floor 7
- office hours: on request

Nataliia Pustilnik PhD cand.

- email address: n.pustilnik@uu.nl
- building and room no.: Vening Meinesz A floor 8
- office hours: on request

Aisha So PhD cand.

- email address: a.m.so@uu.nl
- building and room no.: Vening Meinesz A floor 7
- office hours: on request

b) Place in the curriculum

In the NWI curriculum Big History is the starting point of the natural science tracks. This
course serves as an introduction into natural sciences themes and offers insights in the
topics and methods that are further studied in the domain tracks ‘Energy and Transport’
and ‘Life Sciences’.

The course furthermore focusses on bridging the innovation and natural sciences part of
the curriculum, offering knowledge insights and methods from both areas of expertise.
Focus lies on combining insights and finding commonalities. This interdisciplinary
perspective leads to integration of insights from different disciplines in one big story,
which students can use to place other courses from the programme.

c) Recommended prerequisites

Elementary understanding of physics is useful

d) Entry requirements
-

3. COURSE CONTENT

a) General description of the content

Big History provides a tailor-made overview of relevant natural scientific insights for
students of NWI from an interdisciplinary perspective. We currently face unprecedented
challenges on a global scale. These problems do not neatly fall into disciplines. They are
complicated, complex, and connected. In this course, we take an epic journey of 13.8
billion years starting at the Big Bang and travelling through time all the way to the
future. We learn how our universe and our world has evolved from incredible simplicity to
ever-increasing complexity and we discover the important links between past, current,
and future events. The course addresses key scientific concepts as well as the
epistemological perspectives associated with different themes and topics in physics,
chemistry, biology, transitions, emergence, evolution, complexity, and systems.

By drawing on a wide range of scientific fields, students will learn a range of theoretical
concepts for understanding the complex nature of our global challenges and the
associated innovations that aim to address these challenges. And the students will learn

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to apply these frameworks to different problems, especially those in the context of
energy, transport, materials and life sciences. Students will learn to Integrate
perspectives from multiple disciplines to understand the history of the Universe and
Universal change.

b) Changes to the course due to evaluation results from previous year

Last year, the Big History course was tried out as an elective for NWI students. This year,
the course is an obligatory part of the NWI curriculum for the first time. Based on our
experiences last year we made several changes in the design of the assignment and
revised the content of the lectures.

c) Course aims
After completing this course, students:
1. Are familiar with the cosmic timeline from the Big Bang to today.
2. Can characterize the thresholds of complexity under which the contemporary universe
developed.
3. Have basic knowledge on natural scientific principles underlying the development of
the solar system, elements, earth, life and society.
4. Can discuss the role of entropy, evolution and complexity in these developments.
5. Can develop and execute an interdisciplinary approach to understand a current-day
topic.
6. Can distinguish and apply different styles of scientific thinking.
7. Can reflect critically on the complex and interdisciplinary nature of phenomena.

d) Relationship with career development

- Quick processing of new information: Students will be confronted with new
knowledge which they will quickly have to link with current-day topics.
- Students will practice true interdisciplinary research by combining natural science
and social science disciplines, asking and answering questions from these different
perspectives.
- Understanding of the complex interdisciplinary nature of societal challenges.

e) Programme and schedule

1 Birth of the Universe; starting at the beginning of the Universe, space, time, and
everything in existence. You will learn about Matter, Energy, gravity, systems and
complexity. Styles of scientific thinking; we distinguish different styles of scientific
reasoning and their emergence within their historical context. We consider how these
styles of reasoning inform the formulation of questions and scientific research.

2 Stars and Planets; we examine cosmology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, and

geology, especially focusing on the emergence of elements, atoms and molecules (building
blocks of life) as well as fission, fusion and radioactivity

3 Earth System; includes the planet's natural cycles — the carbon, water, nitrogen,
phosphorus, Sulphur cycles — and deep Earth processes. Life too is an integral part of the
Earth system.

4 Origins of Life; the origin of life c.3.8 billion years ago, the evolution. We will explore
the chemical, biological origins of life, evolutionary biology.

5 The Evolutionary Epic; the evolution of complex forms after c.550 million years ago,
to the evolution of some very odd primates - humans. We will explore genetics,
evolutionary biology, geology, palaeontology, and anthropology.

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6 Human History; from the origin of our species c.200,000 years ago to the eve of the
Industrial Revolution. We explore evolution, geography, climate science, energy
technology, thermodynamics and history.

7 Modernity; we explore how the agrarian era that had lasted for 10,000 years
transitioned to the modern era with its explosion of production and complexity. (complex
systems, evolution, Anthropocene, information science, entropy and social sciences.)

8 The Future; we explore the near and distant future, what challenges we face this
century, how we study the future on the scale of billions of years, and where complexity
may go from here. The section incorporates climatology, cosmology, physics, space
travel, digitization and foresight.

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Week Day Date Time Activity Teacher Core Literature
Christian, D.
(2011). Maps of
time: An
14-11- introduction to big
1 Tue 2023 09:00 Lecture Dr. Gaston Heimeriks history.
Univ of California
Press. Chapter 1
16-11-
Thu 2023 Tutorial
Christian, D.
(2011). Maps of
time: An
21-11- introduction to big
2 Tue 2023 09:00 Lecture Dr. Kees Klein Goldewijk history.
Univ of California
Press. Chapter 2
(and 3?)
23-11-
Thu 2023 Tutorial
Christian, D.
(2011). Maps of
time: An
28-11- introduction to big
3 Tue 2023 09:00 Lecture Dr. Kees Klein Goldewijk history.
Univ of California
Press. Chapter 3
30-11-
Thu 2023 Tutorial
Christian, D.
5-12- (2011). Maps of
4 Tue 2023 09:00 Lecture Dr. Gaston Heimeriks time: An

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 introduction to big
history.
Univ of California
Press. Chapter 4
7-12-
Thu 2023 Tutorial
Christian, D.
(2011). Maps of
time: An
12-12- introduction to big
5 Tue 2023 09:00 Lecture Dr. Gaston Heimeriks history.
Univ of California
Press. Chapter 5
14-12- Midterm
Thu 2023 Exam
Christian, D.
(2011). Maps of
time: An
19-12- introduction to big
6 Tue 2023 09:00 Lecture Dr. Kees Klein Goldewijk history.
Univ of California
Press. Chapter 6 t/m
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21-12-
Thu 2023 Tutorial
8-12-
7 Mon 2023 Deadline
Christian, D.
(2011). Maps of
time: An
9-1- introduction to big
Tue 2024 09:00 Lecture Dr. Gaston Heimeriks history.
Univ of California Press. Chapter 11 t/m 14

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 11-1-
Thu 2024 Tutorial A Dance with Modernity
15-1- Peerfeedback,
8 Mon 2024 Deadline Posterpresentatie
Dr. Gaston
16-1- Heimeriks & dr.
Tue 2024 09:00 Lecture Jeroen Oomen Future Christian, D. (2011). Maps of time: An introduction to big history.
Univ of California Press. Chapter 15
18-1-
Thu 2024 Tutorial The Winds of Future
22-1-
9 mo 2024 Deadline Final version Essay
25-1- Endterm
Thu 2024 Exam

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 f) Study material

Coursebook:
Christian, D. (2011). Maps of time: An introduction to big history. Univ of California
Press.

Other reading material as well as knowledge clips can be found on blackboard.

g) Academic skills (Bachelor’s programmes only)

- Formulating interesting research questions: Students will build a portfolio of
interdisciplinary research questions about a topic of their choice.
- Essay writing: Students will write an essay for a wider audience that explores and
answers some of the aforementioned research questions.
- Poster making & presenting: students will make a poster suitable for conveying
their research findings and presenting them.
- Peer feedback: students will provide each other peer feedback on text that they
are not familiar with, since everyone will work on a different topic.
- Critical thinking: students will become more familiar with styles of ‘doing science’,
and be more aware of how scientific disciplines generate particular types of
questions and answers.
- Student will develop mathematical and natural scientific skills that will be used in
the rest of their program.

h) Study load
Indicate the number of contact hours per week (both virtual and face to face). A 7.5 EC
course will have a total of 210 hours (including self-study hourse).

Contact hours with Week 1 Week Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9
classroom 2 Total
reservations

Lecture 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 27
Tutorial/(computer)
practical/workshop/s 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 14
eminar
Exam, preliminary
examination, 2 2 4
computer test
Other, e.g.
4 4
presentations
Question hour 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9
Programmed
contact hours
without classroom
0
reservation NOTE:
HOURS PER
STUDENT
Fieldwork 0

Excursion 0

Workshop 0

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Meeting between
lecturer and student
0
(face-to-face or
digital)
Supervision of paper
/ assignment (face- 0
to-face or digital)
Open office hours
lecturer (face-to-face 0
or digital)
Peer feedback (face-
0
to-face or digital)
Student meetings
(face-to-face or 0
digital)
Total contact hours 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 10 58

Self-study hours 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 153

Total study load 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 27 211

4. TESTING AND ASSESSMENT

a) Testing, deadlines and feedback
In week 5 a mid-term exam (20%) on the first 4 weeks of the course will be made. In
week 9 week 9 a final exam (40%) will be made on all course contents. Both exams are
closed-book, digital exams administered on campus through Remindo. These tests will
contain a mix op closed and open questions; the final test will be also be directed at
questions that reflect on the course contents and larger concepts discussed throughout
the course.

The material to be studied for the exams will be stated here before the course starts. It
will include the coursebook (Christian), reading material and slides made available for
each week, knowledge clips and discussions/results from tutorials.

The essay (made in duos, 30%) will be handed in in week 9, after the poster
presentation and peer feedback. The essay is a collection of research questions and
answers based within the topics and scientific fields addressed throughout the course. A
portfolio will be made by students, updating their work week by week. This portfolio will
be checked and commented on by supervisor, and will be shared for peer feedback in
week 8 of the course.

In week 8 a poster presentation will be held in which students present their essay
assignment in a poster session with other students and a supervisor.

Following table links the assessment types to the course aims:

Aim 1 Aim 2 Aim 3 Aim 4 Aim 5 Aim 6 Aim 7

Written x x x x
exam 1
Written x x x x x
exam 2
Group paper x x x x x x
Poster x x x x x x
presentation

b) Rules during an examination

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It is of the utmost importance that you can identify yourself during the exam. This means
bringing and showing your ID card with photo. If you cannot show this, you may be
excluded from the exam. Some additional rules during an exam:
- You may not leave the room during the first 30 minutes of the exam.
- Latecomers will be admitted only until 30 minutes after the start of the exam.
- All electronic equipment needs to be switched off (including phones and
smartwatches!), except for equipment which the examiner has allowed.
- Put coats and bags on the floor. Bags need to be closed.
- If you need to use the toilet, inform an invigilator. Someone will escort you there.
- Raise your hand if you have questions, if anything is unclear, or if your need extra
paper etc.

You can find further instructions on the examination paper. Always follow these rules.
For courses with a digital exam, the rules are different. You can find them on the
examination paper.

c) Assessment
The final grade is composed of the following:

Mid term exam: 20% - no minimum grade

End term exam: 40% - no minimum grade
Essay: 30% - no minimum grade
Poster presentation: 10% - no minimum grade

Final course grade: The final course grade will be satisfactory (pass) or unsatisfactory
(fail) and will be expressed in numbers of 6 or higher and 5 or lower, respectively. The
final grade will be rounded off to one decimal place (e.g. 7.4 or 8.7). A final course grade
of 5 does not have any decimal places; an average grade of 4.50-5.49 is unsatisfactory,
an average grade of 5.50-5.99 becomes a 6.0.

If you have fulfilled all course obligations but failed to obtain a final grade of 6 or higher,
you will be given one chance to repair, via a supplementary test (“aanvullende toets”). If
the supplementary test has been passed, the final grade of the course will be 6.0.

According to the Teaching and Education Regulations, you also have the right to a
supplementary test if you have not fulfilled the minimum grade (5.50) of no more than 1
partial test, even though your final non-rounded grade is 5.50 or higher. If that
supplementary test has been passed, it will count as a 5.50 when calculating your new
final grade.

This course does not have a minimum grade requirement for a partial test.

A non-rounded-off final grade <4.00 implies a definite fail, i.e. in such cases there is no
right to a supplementary test or supplementary partial test.

The character and content of the supplementary (partial) test will be decided upon by the
course coordinator.

The table below indicates the cases resulting in a supplementary (partial) test for this
course.

Attachment 1 shows the scheme regarding supplementary testing.

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Note that a replacement test (“vervangende toets”) is only applicable in demonstrable
circumstances beyond your control (such as serious illness). In case of dispute, reference
is made to the Teaching and Examination Regulations (OER) of the degree programme
and the Regulations of the Board of Examiners.

d) Attendance and effort requirements

This course has a mandatory attendance for tutorials.
This course does not have mandatory attendance for lectures.
Of course attendance at exams is mandatory.

If you cannot attend a tutorial or the exam due to serious illness or other reasons beyond
your control, mandatory attendance will not apply. You must be able to prove that the
reason for absence was beyond your control, if the course coordinator asks you to do
this. Ultimately, the course coordinator will decide and approve this.

Absence must be announced via the webform

(https://www.formdesk.com/universiteitutrecht-geo/AbsenceForm) which can be found
on the students’ website or on the Blackboard community of your programme.
Absence or illness does not relieve you of your obligation to perform to the best of your
ability. In other words, if you have not been able to complete a paper or give a
presentation, contact the course coordinator to find out whether it may be rescheduled to
another date. If the quality or quantity of your attendance has been insufficient, the
course coordinator may exclude you from the remainder or from part of the course.

Group work
“There is an effort requirement for the group work. Insufficient contribution to the group
work (or ‘free-riding’) can result in the decision to split up the group and grading and/or
fulfilling the group assignment alone. In case a group member does not contribute
sufficiently, it is the responsibility of the group members to address this within the group
and to inform the group supervisor in time. Whether a student has sufficiently
contributed will be decided by the group supervisor.
After signaling and discussing group dynamics problems with the supervisor, the
supervisor may require the inclusion of a colophon with the final group assignment. This
colophon will in detail describe which student has been responsible for each part of the
final assignment, and grading can be performed for the students individually. If group
does not function to a degree that it is deemed preferrable to continue alone, this is an
option.

e) Studying with disabilities, physical and/or mental impairment

The Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development tries to meet the needs of students
with a disability, physical and/or mental impairment as much as possible by offering
facilities for their studies. However, students play an active part in this as well. Only
students who have a contract with the department are eligible for facilities and special
regulations. Students with a contract will be registered in Osiris. The lecturer will see
which students have special facilities (and what kind of facility) when they receive the
attendance list of their course.

5. FRAUD AND PLAGIARISM

You are always expected to hand in your own authentic work. Discussion with others can
be enriching but the final product always has to be your own. All scientific research,
including that of students, builds on the results of the work of other researchers, either in
a positive or in a negative sense. Those other researchers deserve the credits for their
work, in the form of a correct acknowledgement.

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In short, quoting is allowed (and even necessary), but copying other researchers' work
and presenting it as if it were one's own is plagiarism: unacceptable behaviour in the
world of science. Lecturers have software to check texts for plagiarism and they will
apply this software. Students who plagiarise run tremendous risks: in the worst-case
scenario they will be expelled from the programme for a year. More details about the
sanctions involved in plagiarizing can be found in the Teaching and Examination
Regulations of the programme: http://students.uu.nl/en/practical-information/academic-
policies-and-procedures/regulations

More information about fraud and plagiarism can be found here:

http://students.uu.nl/en/practical-information/academic-policies-and-procedures/fraud-
and-plagiarism.

On the website https://www.wix.com/wordsmatter/blog/2020/02/ways-to-avoid-

plagiarism/ you can find tips on how to avoid plagiarism.

Fraud and plagiarism are defined as an action or failure to act on the part of a student,
as a result of which a correct assessment of his knowledge, understanding and skills is
made impossible, in full or in part.

Fraud includes:
• cheating during tests. The person offering the opportunity to cheat is an accessory
to fraud;
• share answers with others while taking a test;
• seeking the help of third parties during a test;
• having within reach tools and resources during tests, such as a pre-programmed
calculator, mobile phone, smartwatch, smartglasses, books, course readers,
notes, etc., unless consultation is explicitly permitted;
• having others carry out all of part of an assignment and passing this off as own
work;
• gaining access to questions, assignments or answers of a test prior to the date or
time that the test takes place;
• perform (or try to perform) technical changes that undermine the online testing
system;
• fabricating survey or interview answers or research data.
Plagiarism is defined as including data or sections of text from others/own work in a
thesis or other paper without quoting the source. Plagiarism includes the following:
• cutting and pasting text from digital sources such as encyclopaedias and digital
magazines without using quotation marks and referring to the source;
• cutting and pasting text from the internet without using quotation marks and
referring to the source;
• using excerpts from texts of printed material such as books, magazines and
encyclopaedias without using quotation marks and referring to the source;
• using a translation of the abovementioned texts without using quotation marks
and referring to the source;
• paraphrasing of the abovementioned texts without clearly referring to the source:
paraphrasing must be marked as such (by explicitly linking the text with the
original author, either in text or a footnote), so that the impression is not created
that the ideas expressed are those of the student;
• using visual, audio or test material from others without referring to the source
and presenting this as own work;
• resubmission of the student’s own earlier work without referring to the source,
and allowing this to pass for work originally produced for the purpose of the
course, unless this is expressly permitted in the course or by the lecturer;
• using the work of other students and passing this off as own work. If this happens
with the permission of the other student, the latter is also guilty of plagiarism;

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 • in the event that, in a joint paper, one of the authors commits plagiarism, the
other authors are also guilty of plagiarism, if they could or should have known
that the other was committing plagiarism;
• submitting papers obtained from a commercial institution (such as an internet site
offering excerpts or papers) or having such written by someone else whether or
not in return for payment.

Fraud and plagiarism in groupwork

In case of group work, the group as a whole is responsible for the work that is handed in.
If one of the group members commits fraud or plagiarism, the work cannot be assessed
and the whole group will be called in front of the Board of Examiners. If the Board of
Examiners determines that fraud or plagiarism has been committed, an appropriate
sanction will be determined for each group member separately and the work will be
declared invalid. If group members not guilty of the fraud or plagiarism want to receive a
grade, the product will have to be re-written in such a way that a plagiarism-free work
can be assessed. Make sure you are aware of your team members’ work. Check each
other’s work and call attention to someone’s work if necessary.

6. QUALITY ASSURANCE: COURSE EVALUATIONS AND COURSE

FEEDBACK GROUP
a) Course evaluation
Each course is evaluated afterwards by the students. The lecturer proposes measures for
improvement based on the evaluation results. It is important to fill in the evaluation
questionnaire seriously because the evaluation results and lecturer’s recommendations
are discussed in the education committee and the management team. The evaluation
results will be published in the Blackboard community ‘Course evaluations Geosciences’.
If you cannot log on to that community, and you would like to know the results, you can
ask the lecturer for a copy of the evaluation results.

b) Course feedback group – collecting continuous feedback

Because this is a new course, students will also be asked to answer feedback question
regularly during the course. This allows the teachers to make small adjustments to the
course for the next iteration. The collected feedback will be discussed by the Course
Feedback Group (CFG).

More information on the feedback methods will be shared in class and on Blackboard.

7. OTHER INFORMATION
Here you can add any course information which you have not been able to include in the
previous chapters.

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Appendix 1: determining supplementary testing

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