THRESHOLD INFORMATION CARD

One of these needs to be created for each of your thresholds and be submitted with your museum
exhibit.
Threshold (Which threshold of complexity does this source describe?)
1: New Elements
Source 1 (correctly referenced in Harvard Date format):
Threshold 3: New Elements 2013, DVD, Big History, Big History Project, 10
September.
Notes (What evidence can I use from this source? What are the main facts, arguments, claims this
source makes about your threshold?):
-

The Birth of stars caused massive amounts of heat energy and pressure which in turn caused
different numbers of protons to fuse together, creating new elements- namely copper which is
crucial in wiring
- This source also claims that these elements did not exist before the birth of stars, only
hydrogen and helium. It also stated that they can only be created through intense heat and
pressure
Source 2 (correctly referenced in Harvard Date format):
Big History Project 2008, Threshold 3: New Elements, accessed 3 June 2016,
<https://www.bighistoryproject.com/chapters/1#new-elements>.
Notes (What evidence can I use from this source? What are the main facts, arguments, claims this
source makes about your threshold?):
This website explains how when the stars collapse due to a lack of external energy coming from its
core, the mass of the star falls into the core, slamming into it and creating extremely high pressure that
then in turn creates the new elements needed for the telephone in billions of years time.
Other Sources (add further sources and notes here, if you wish)
Elements of a smartphone 2016, Compound Interest, accessed 7 June 2016,
<http://www.compoundchem.com/2014/02/19/the-chemical-elements-of-asmartphone/>.
This source explains how all the different elements come together in compounds or
their own molecules to form a smartphone. It was quite interesting how many
elements were in it- and that came from dying stars.
Ingredients & Goldilocks Conditions (What ingredients and Goldilocks conditions contribute to this
change/development in the history of your topic?)
The ingredients were hydrogen, helium and the goldilocks conditions were the formation of stars and
then the pressure that came out of their collapsing. The hydrogen and helium then fused more protons
and created new elements
Increasing Complexity (Explain the increasing complexity of your topic in this threshold in a
paragraph of your own words.)
The increasing complexity of this threshold is the new possibilities and uses of the elements created in
the supernovae. Billions of years later, copper and other elements would be used to put together a
telephone and then more elements even later when it becomes a smartphone. If this threshold had not
occurred, aside from the fact that life would not exist like we know it today, the telephone would have
been impossible to create.