Geologic Time and a Letter from Time Mini Project

Name______J#______

“Geologic Timeline” Honors

Scientists estimate that Earth formed approximately 4.56 billion (4,560,000,000) years ago. Our planet began as a lifeless sphere, surrounded by hydrogen and methane. It was completely dry, meaning NO water! It was nothing like the planet we call our home today. There are many years between the start of the earth and the present; years in which many different organisms originated, adapted, evolved or became extinct and years in which many significant events took place. The history of the earth has been broken down and put into a chart called the Geological Timeline (see attached). As you will note, the timeline that we are using has been broken into Eons, the Eons are broken down into Eras, the Eras are then broken down into Periods, and the Periods are broken into Epochs. This helps in the classification of organisms as well as time.

Your mini project is a group effort. Everyone in your group must complete the conversion chart A and every group member MUST participate. Assign the following jobs. There will be a group-evaluation/self-evaluation at the completion of this project based on participation and group involvement. It will be a large portion of your grade! I suggest that you assign a backup person for each job to ensure accuracy.

·  Person 1—Supply master (and measurer)

·  Person 2—Procedure Specialist (asks questions and makes sure procedure is being followed)

·  Person 3—Team Manager (AND writer/recorder)

·  Person 4—Recycling Engineer (and Time Keeper and SECOND measurer)

Make your version of the Geologic Timeline creative, different, and interesting!

Before we began this, you took a Geologic Timescale Questionnaire. You will need to attach that to your rubric page (this page) when you turn it in. You will also need to complete and attach “Questionnaire II,” which readdresses the Geologic Timescale Questionnaire—Pretest.

This is the EXACT rubric I will use on your project.

1.  Did you do YOUR job? (pink sheet) _____/25

2.  Did you work as a team? (teacher discretion) _____/10

3.  Eons, Eras, Periods, Epochs, and “Ages” labeled accurately _____/10

4.  Life forms and major events labeled _____/10

5.  Accuracy of Measurements _____/15

6.  Conversion Chart _____/10

7.  Questions completed/pretest (questionnaire) re-addressed (attached) _____/10

8. Overall presentation and appearance (neatness and readability) _____/10 ______/100

Procedure for: Making a Geologic Time Line

Procedure: Use this sheet and read the directions carefully to complete the activity. You will construct the geologic timeline on 5 meters of paper as a group. Beginning with the present time, label the origin of each organism and event. Work back into time with each million years being represented by a centimeter conversion. After you finish, ending with the formation of the earth, creatively add in the Eons, Eras, Periods, and Epochs.

1. Complete the conversion chart (see attached page) with two columns. On the left side, there are numbers listed in Millions. These numbers coincide with the years on the Geologic Timeline (attached page). They stand for the amount of years ago that each organism originated or event took place. With the scale of 1 Million years = 1 Millimeter convert the millimeters to centimeters and use this chart as an easy reference when you are measuring.

2. Arrange the paper so that it is in a landscape direction and measure ACCURATELY. There should be 5 meters of paper. If there is extra, that is fine for now.

3. Write your team name and period on the paper.

4. Flip the paper over.

5. Using a meter stick, on one end of the paper, measure approximately 20 cm. Draw a line.

6. Using the meter stick again, draw a STRAIGHT line through across the middle of the paper from left to right (so you have (almost) a 5 m line across your paper dividing it in half long ways).

7. Make a scale that is VERY visible on your paper. Label the scale: 1 meter = 1 Billion years (1 mm = 1 million years)

8. Locate where the lines you drew and steps 5 and 6 make a T. Label the top of the T with the word -Today.

9. From this mark, measure 1 meter to the right on this line and make a vertical mark. Label this mark 1 billion years. Measure and mark each meter after that up to 4 meters or 4 billion years from today.

10. Measure 56 cm to make the total length of the time line 4.56 meters. Mark and label this distance

4.5 6 billion years (The Beginning of Time). *According to Prentice Hall, Earth is 4.56 billion years old.

11. Add the following major events to your timeline:

·  4.5 billion years ago: Earth’s moon was formed.

·  3.8 billion years ago: Bacteria arose.

·  3.6 billion years ago: A cooling process began on Earth.

·  3.0 billion years ago: Clouds formed.

·  2.0 billion years ago: Eukaryotic cells (single cells with a nucleus) evolved.

·  0.5 billion years ago: Oxygen began to saturate the atmosphere.

·  250 Million years ago: Pangaea began to split up

·  94 Million years ago: Significant Pangaea split

12. Label the life forms (and/or major events) of each eon, era, period, and epoch on your geologic timeline by using the attached basic geologic timeline as a guide (Making it easier on you: Type or write then layout each of the events on the geologic timeline before pasting them on the paper – the pieces are easier to move without the glue) You will be creating a timeline of Earth’s history.

13. Label the year and name of each eon, era, period, and epoch on your geologic timeline. Also, label the “Ages.” Use the measurements from the conversion chart (each of these measurements represents a notable time) and the attached Geologic Timeline to get this information. Be sure to be ACCURATE!

Geologic Timeline Conversion Chart

Million Years Before Present Distance in Metric Measures (cm)

Scale:

1 millimeter =

million years

(Convert to Cm)

Geologic Timeline

Questionnaire II

1. Put the following in order by largest units of time to smallest: Epoch, Era, Eon, Period.

2.  When did plant life begin to appear on Earth?

3.  When did animal life begin to appear in the oceans?

4.  When did the first land animals evolve?

5.  When did humanlike life appear on Earth?

1. During which era did Pangaea begin to break up?

1. How do we learn about the history of the Earth? For example: How do we know that dinosaurs really existed?

1. What is the geologic timeline?

1. The timeline below marks the beginning of the geologic timeline to present day. Place the letter on the time line where the corresponding event occurred. The first few have been done for you.

T = Today C = Cenozoic Era Began

B = The Beginning Of Time P = Precambrian Era Began

D = Dinosaurs Became Extinct Pa = Paleozoic Era Began

R = The Oldest Known Rocks M = Mesozoic Era Began

H = First Humans

1. When do you think the era that we live in will end? What would the next era be called?

11.  Describe how geology has influenced the formation and development of life. Think about geothermal energy, plate tectonics, tides, mountain formation.

1. Describe several ways the formation and presence of the moon changed life on Earth.