This survey course provides an overview of the vast scope of world history and culture — ancient to contemporary spanning the entire globe. Suitable for any year of high school, it is ideal as a first history course at the high school level because it lays a foundation and provides a context for other history and social studies courses. This course also teaches students how to study history, including consideration of sources and bias. Many students coming to this course will have previously written mainly descriptive essays, so this course deliberately prepares the student for upper high school and college by systematically teaching how to write an analytical history research essay, including source research, development of a thesis, and presentation of academic argument. This class also introduces students to ideas and beliefs different from their own, and consideration of other peoples and cultures is pursued with the goal of respectfully understanding diverse cultures, religions, political systems and people in their own context and from a biblical worldview.