Geologic Time
Nicole LaDue, Northern Illinois University
Formative assessment questions using a classroom response system ("clickers") can be used to reveal students' spatial understanding. Students are shown this diagram and instructed to "Click on ...

GEOLOGIC TIME: PRINCIPLES & APPLICATIONS
Tiffany Rivera, University of Missouri-Columbia; Victor Ricchezza, Georgia State University
Average inquiry level: Structured This inquiry-based lab about the principles of relative and numerical dating allows students to apply reason and logic to determine the order of geologic events, to experimentally ...

Roping Geologic Time
Randall Richardson, The University of Arizona
After having talked about the geologic time scale, I ask for two volunteers from the class to hold a rope that is 50 feet long. I say that one end is the beginning of the Earth (4.6 billion years ago), and the other is today. I then give out 16 clothes pins and ask various students to put a cloths pin on the 'time line' at various 'geologic events'. Throughout the activity I have a quiz going on where the students calculate percentages of Earth History for major geologic events, and compare it to their own ages. On their time scale, the dinosaurs died only about two 'months' ago! The exercise is very effective at letting them get a sense of how long geologic time is, and how 'recently' some major geologic events happened when you consider a time scale that is the age of the earth.

Relative Geologic Time and the Geologic Time Scale
Bret Bennington, Hofstra University
Group simulation of the development of the geologic time scale illustrating concepts of correlation and relative time. Extremely effective for teaching the significance of the geologic time scale.

Geologic time scale hiking tour group project
Erik Haroldson, Austin Peay State University
Students work in groups to develop content for am online hiking tour which is matched to the geologic time scale. This project has been used as a semester group work project in an introductory geologic history ...

Geologic Time Resorts
JoAnn Thissen
In this Geologic Time Resorts activity students do in-depth research on a given geologic time period of the Phanerozoic Eon and create brochures "selling" their time period as a resort destination.

Where on Earth were the reefs through geologic time?
Alycia Stigall, Ohio University-Main Campus
Students explore the geographic distribution of reefs through geologic time. Students map fossil occurrences of reef forming organisms on modern and paleogeographic reconstructions using the Paleobiology Database. ...

Relative and Absolute Geologic Time with Maps and Spreadsheets
Eileen Herrstrom, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This activity takes place in a laboratory setting and takes ~1.5-2 hours to complete. Students apply stratigraphic principles for relative dating and basic equations of isotopic systems for absolute dating and ...

Geologic Time Discussion Analogies
Noah Fay, Pima Community College
This is 4 ppt slides used to facilitate discussion w/students about the immensity of geologic time. I ask them a series of leading questions and try to get them to do "mental math" in order to grasp the ...

Geologic Time Scale CogSketch geoscience worksheet
Bridget Garnier
Sketching activity that uses a sketch-understanding program, CogSketch. This worksheet has students build the geologic time scale by adding events on increasing larger scales, from 1 million years to 4.56 billion ...