Geologic Time Activities

Trinidad Evolution Education WorkshopsOctober, 2013

PBS Evolution Resources

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/• Over 100 documents, videos, animations and web activities

focusing on several aspects of geologic time:– Adaptive Radiation– Extinction– Earth’s History– Major Transformations– Punctuated Equilibrium

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/

Toilet Paper Timeline and The Deep Time Walk

• Toilet Paper Timeline – Important events in Earth’s history are marked off on a roll of toilet paper to demonstrate scale– http://www.nthelp.com/eer/HOAtimetp.html– http://serc.carleton.edu/quantskills/activities/TPGeoTime.htm– http://www.geology.wisc.edu/~museum/hughes/GeoTimeScale1.html

• Deep Time Walk – Similar conceptually to the Toilet Paper Timeline, but on larger scale– On a football field: http://www.uky.edu/KGS/education/fieldtime.htm– Gymnasium: http://www.uky.edu/KGS/education/court_time.htm– Parking lot: http://www.uky.edu/KGS/education/parking_time.htm

MapTime

• http://www.maptime.co.uk• Free web-based program• Superimposes events in

Earth’s history over a Google Earth map

• Gives a sense of scale to geologic time

• User decides on start and end points

HHMI Biointeractive

• http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/shortfilms/• Tells story of dinosaur disappearance at K-T

boundary, Chicxulub meteorite crater• Spans geology, physics, biology, chemistry and

paleontology• Free on DVD or via streaming, download • 33 min. long in three ~ 11 min. segments