A SUMMARYThe true story of the nutty Universe, crazy planet Earth, chaotic evolution and lucky old You!
In six Zoom sessions, lasting one hour, 9.30 - 10.30 on Sundays January 7 - February 11
"Are we nearly there yet?" is what children say towards the end of a long journey. We have been on a very long journey - 14 billion years - and there have been many adventures. We'll hear the best of them in 6 Zoom presentations, each Sunday between October 29th and December 3rd. Richard tells the story, chapter by chapter, on Powerpoint. Then there will be Q&A, games, chats and experiments, based around the week's main themes.
The full story (12 chapters) is all about you - your appearance as a hydrogen atom in the Big Bang, and your adventures through exploding stars, under-water volcanoes, evolution, bacteria, worms, dinosaurs, apes, humans, parents, neighbours, wars, floods, famines and earthquakes until the marvel that is YOU emerged just a few years ago. (Summaries below)
Ticket prices drop each week depending on how many chapters are left to see. It works out at about £2.30 per week per screen (not per people watching).
You will get your ZOOM instructions each week.
Age 7- 18+. This is a family event, and at least one adult is expected to be present - they have an important role to play in explaining things to the child, and especially in asking questions. (The questions are the best bit!)**NOTE*** Only purchase 1 ticket per family. Purchase the ticket in the name of one attending child.
All family members can participate for the cost of 1 ticket. Originally £13.78, the ticket price drops each week, pro rata, so you only pay for the weeks that remain. Check it each week!
Catch-up videos are available to all participants.
If you haven't received your 'ticket' (Zoom link) by the day before, please check junk folder before contacting Richard.
Tickets sales will finish one hour before the sessions.
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Full summary of each week's event:
Sunday Jan 7th, 9.30 - 10.30
Chapter one: YOU, THE BIG BANG AND OTHER DISASTERS
The narrative flies through 10 billion years of stars growing and exploding, with you in the middle of them all, until you end up, dazed and exhausted, on a giant rock which is too small to become a star (good - nice and safe) spinning round a star which is too small to explode (even safer). The rock is Earth and the star is the Sun.
(Today's theme: how gravity made the Universe)
Chapter two : LIFE
Early Earth is almost molten. You are on an erupting volcano, two miles under water. This is the perfect place to make life: it's so crazy and chaotic. And so is the thing you become: DNA. You become the first cell; the mother of all cells on the planet animals, plants, fungi, bacteria and everything. Scientists call you the Last Universal Common Ancestor LUCA
(Todays theme: chaos and life)
Sunday January 14th, 9.30 - 10.30
Chapter three: EVOLUTION
You are constantly breaking and re-building your DNA (thats life), but you are pretty chaotic in the way you rebuild, so your copies tend to be different. Thats evolution. You evolve the power of movement: you are Flagellate.
(Todays theme: chaos and evolution)
Chapter four: COMPETITION
You and your family of flagellates team up with a sheet of cells and together you become the next big thing: multicellular life. The sheet rolls into a tube; your flagella become oars on the outside and villi on the inside. You are now an eating machine. Your new name is Worm.
(Todays theme: how teams form)
Sunday January 21st, 9.30 - 10.30
Chapter five: COOPERATION
This is a break from the story: the tale of the Portuguese man'o'war, the missing link between single-celled creatures and the complex life forms we see today.
(Todays theme: natural selection)
Chapter six: BECOMING THE BEST
Another explosion: the Cambrian Explosion - an explosion of life. You evolve to become Fish. Everyone else evolves a great need to eat you. As you try to escape them you stare wistfully at the empty land at the edge of the ocean, and wonder...
(Todays theme: competition)
Sunday January 28th, 9.30 - 10.30
Chapter seven: LIFE ON LAND
Evolving into a land animal is perhaps the most monumental task, but soon you have four sturdy legs. In no time you are once more on the menu, this time a dinosaur menu. More evolution turns you into Mammal, so you can be awake during the cold nights, while the dinosaurs are asleep.
(Todays theme: intelligence)
Chapter eight: HOW TO MAKE A HUMAN
Your clever mammalian brain is your secret weapon. Teaming up with other mammals, you combine brains to be come a super-organism: a herd or tribe. Soon you are Human, ready for adventures.
(Todays theme: family and empathy)
Sunday February 4th, 9.30 - 10.30
Chapter nine: ALL AROUND THE WORLD
In just 100,000 years you spread from a corner of Africa to everywhere, coping with all the different climates and conditions by a mixture of evolution and invention.
Then you invent farming: another explosion, this time a foodie explosion of your own making. And the rest is history, up to the present day.
(Todays theme: creativity)
Chapter ten – HIGH SOCIETY
Your tribe grows. Through 'social evolution' it becomes a society. As it expands it meets neighbouring societies. Through conflict and cooperation it becomes a nation.
Sunday February 11th, 9.30 - 10.30
Chapter eleven – YOU AND THEM
You contain two different Yous: your parent's You - a mixture of their shuffled DNA - and the You that was installed in you by society (including your parents): language, clothing, beliefs, biases. Those two are not exactly the same, so sometimes there are arguments. This is good; it's how 'social evolution' works.
Chapter twelve – ALL YOUR ODDITIES
Your history is written all through you, from the monkey tail at the bottom of your spine, to the flagellum which every cell still retains. Here you will find an answer for all your oddities – yawning, goose bumps, cancer, viruses, ear waggling, sleep falling, hiccups, etc.
Note: Throughout, we dip into quite a lot of curriculum areas - all the 'ologies' - cosmology, geology, biology, zoology, palaeontology, anthropology, archaeology, technology, ecology, sociology, psychology…
For those with an allergy to 'ology', I share your pathology! I have learned all that science stuff, but I speak in plain English, nice and clear. You will find, I hope, that complicated ideas can be explained in simple ways.
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