Free Online Historical Geology Curriculum

Welcome to the Old Earth Ministries Online Earth History Curriculum (also known as "Historical Geology"). Most schools, including public, private, and homeschools, teach courses in world history, United States history, state history, and Biblical history, but they don't teach the history of the world before mankind. This course details the basic scientific understanding of the earth's history, from its formation approximately four and a half billion years ago (Day One of God's creative timescale), until the creation of Adam, which represents the end of God's creative works.

This curriculum presupposes that students are high school level, and have completed the online geology curriculum. If you have not, you may still take this curriculum. However, you may find yourself looking up many terms that were covered in the geology curriculum. In addition to geology, it would be helpful if the student has already studied high school biology.

This course should fulfill a semester credit for science for your homeschool student. When used together with our Introduction to Geology Curriculum, it should equal a full year of science. As always, check your local laws to ensure this course meets your state's regulations.

No registration is necessary. I simply request that you send a courtesy email to the administrator email account, informing me that you are using the curriculum.

Each lesson is designed to be a complete, web-based learning experience with pictures, and links for further learning. Each chapter consists of lessons designed to be completed in a day, although some are lenghty and could be divided in half. At the end of each chapter, there is a Chapter Test, consisting of 15 questions. These tests are currently being developed. As of 22 August 2013, the first four tests are live.

You may also elect to use the curriculum without the tests, or parents can create their own tests.

A Note on Evolution

A vast number of old earth creationists believe in evolution. In theistic evolution, God used the evolutionary process to either allow, or guide, the development of life. In other forms of old earth creationism, such as progressive creationism, God is believed to have created each species as a unique creation, which did not evolve from a previous species. In the text of the curriculum, care has been taken to make the text suitable for both versions of old earth creationism. However, many references to evolution and evolutionary processes remain in the text. If this is a concern, please have a talk with your children about how they should treat these sections.

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If you have found this curriculum to be useful, please consider a small donation. Your support will help me continue to offer curriculum at no cost. Visit the donation page for more information. Thank You.

Legal Disclaimer - Old Earth Ministries makes no promises concerning the use of this material. Because of differences in home school regulations from state to state, it is the responsibility of the home schooling parents to determine if it meets the standards for an elective in the state of residence where they reside.

Curriculum Sources: Much of this curriculum has been copied and edited from Wikipedia.¹ Why not just have the students read the Wikipedia page? Two reasons. First, Wikipedia contains much cross-linking to other Wikipedia articles. For example, consider this sentence:

Students do not need to waste time reading an article to see what a seed bearing plant, or a forest is, as they are high schoolers and already know this. Second, having several links within a sentence, which shows up as a different color, is not as pleasing to the eye. By leaving in only links that may be useful, students can concentrate better on the subject at hand.

The second reason for copying is so that minor tweaks to the text can be accomplished. This is a Christian website, and we seek to present the story of how God created. Therefore it was necessary to be able to edit the text to put in remarks that clarify the Christian perspective.

To make the curriculum look cleaner, references have been removed. Links are provided at the bottom of the lessons for anyone wishing to examine references on the original Wikipedia page.

¹ Copyright issues. Wikipedia pages are public-edited pages, and may be re-used on other websites. Changes to the text in this curriculum were made to clarify the interpretation from a Christian perspective. Thus, all statements in the text that are religious in nature have been added. Some duplicate material has been removed, and some material not relevant for a high school class was removed. Images in the curriculum are either public domain, or they contain a link to the source to provide credit to the author of the image.

Old Earth Ministries Online Earth History Curriculum

Earth History - Curriculum Overview