When Earth Science students first learn about geologic time (from now on GT) and big events that have happened in the past, they often have a hard time of grasping how long GT actually is. It is tough to say that in" GT 100,000 years is a blink of an eye" and for them to understand the meaning of that statement. So I have them do 2 lessons that I know can really help them become more comfortable with the timeline.
Lesson 1: GT on the Floor
Geologic timeline on the floor
This lesson is not an original but it is a gemstone!
I measure 4.6 meters of string and have the students tape them around the room in the floor. The students get a stack of the cards that are cut out for them (mine are now laminated and reusable because I know I will continue to do this lesson).
The first day I have them put down the cards where they think they should go (with younger/lower level students I also help in marking the 500 million marks (50cm) and reminding them constantly that each centimeter is 10 million years). This first day is always the most interesting! They usually have no idea when events on the timeline have happened. The one card that usually throws them off is the Eukaryote cell. I do not tell them what any of the cards are until we do it together the next day. Most of the time students will space out all of the cards evenly. Sometimes you see the critical thinking skills of students when it comes to plants moving to land before animals move to land which is always fun. The conversations they have while doing this lesson are awesome. I also like it because it lets them know that its OK to be wrong sometimes (and that scares the pants off of them.) After they have laid out their cards, I have them draw a copy of the timeline in their journal (or have them take a picture of it with their phones or laptops). If you wanted to get really intense I would have them write explanations for why they put certain cards in that particular order. I have never had enough time for this in one class period, but I think it would be really awesome for them to analyze their own thinking processes.
The second day I post the events and the dates on the board and have them remake the timeline. This is usually very eye opening to most of my students when they see the order and times at which these events happened. After they have recreated the timeline and copied it in their journal we then discuss the events. This is a good chance to go ever the Eukaryotic cell and some other things they may have never heard of before.
Lesson 2 :GT analogy project
Geologic timeline analogy (I do not recommend doing this lesson for any student who is not in algebra or has taken algebra)
I have them start off with practicing scientific notation. This will get them ready to work with large numbers. This is another paper that is not an original that I got offline.
A lot of my students do not have scientific calculators so I have them use this calculator on their laptops. This calculator is perfect because it shows the students what the calculator is recognizing that they are inputting. It also saves their history so when I am checking their numbers I can see the mistakes that they may have made. Depending on what is available to your classroom will effect how you want to do the math section. For extremely low students, or classrooms with little technology you can to all of the math together and pick just 1-2 objects to make your analogy over.
The students have to pick an object or thing that has a start and finish or a top and bottom. The most popular analogies they pick are buildings, distances to their favorite vacation spot, length of a river, favorite movie. The best part is they can make it all their own, and no two are ever alike!
Here are some examples of the end products I have received.
Blue Whale GT Analogy
Michael Jordan's Famous Dunk
Secretariats Longest Stride
A Favorite Book Analogy
Map Example
The majority of my students are in the beginning of algebra at the time so I set up the equations for them using this paper.
Once they get the hang of plugging in the numbers into the calculator it all gets a lot easier from there. At this point it is important to make sure they understand what the numbers they calculated actually mean. This takes some time and patience because most of your students will then have to do some subtracting. This is so the beginning of the Earth correlates correctly with the beginning of the topic they picked (bottom of building, beginning of book, beginning of trip etc.)
***Note: The calculation is how far from the present***
It is a longer lesson to get through with the math portion, but making it is the easy part! The students usually do not completely grasp the idea and have that AH HA moment until they really start the construction. It is stressful in the beginning of the project but always worth it in the end!I used to have them just make a poster using pages but this year I changed it up a bit. I allowed them to also use Prezi, Powtoon.com and even Piktochart.com.
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