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Events:

Evolutionary events (Light Blue):

. First evidence of life (3,850 million years ago [ma])

. Oldest fossils (3,500 ma)

. First evidence of soft-bodied animals (900 ma)

. The Cambrian Explosion (530 ma)

. First land plants and fish (480 ma)

. First reptiles (350 ma)

. First mammals and dinosaurs (220 ma)

. First birds (150 ma)

. First hominids (5.2 ma)

Modern humans (0.1 ma)

Extinctions (Red):

. Some single-celled animals and soft-bodied animals (Vendian 543 ma)

. Reef-builders and other shallow-water organisms (Cambrian 520 ma)

. Ninety percent of all species (End Permian 250 ma)

. Dinosaurs and 60 to 80 percent of all species (End Cretaceous 65 ma)

. Foraminifera, gastropods, and sea urchins (Late Eocene 33 ma)

. Many woodland, plant-eating herbivores (Miocene 9 ma)

Nearly all mammals and birds over 45 lbs. (Late Pleistocene 0.1 ma)

Geologic Events (Yellow):

. Formation of the great oceans (4,200 ma)

. Continents begin shifting (3,100 ma)

. Rodinia supercontinent breaks up (700 ma)

. Gondwana forms (500 ma)

. Great mountain ranges form (425 ma)

. Formation of Pangaea supercontinent (280 ma)

. Pangaea supercontinent breaks up (200 ma)

. Mt. Stuart and the Stuart Range is formed (96 ma)

. Ancestral Cascade Mountains form (37 ma)

. Inland seas dry up (20 ma)

. Columbia River Basalts (forming most of the bedrock of Eastern WA) (17 ma)

Global ice ages begin (2 Ma)

Constructing a Geologic Timescale

Introduction:

When most of you think of ancient history, we think of Greece, Ancient Rome, maybe even the Egyptians. However, these civilizations are only thousands of years old, whereas scientists have determined that Earth history is BILLIONS of years old. To put this in perspective, if you were to write a book using one page for every year of Earth history, the book would have 4,600,000,000 pages, be a 145 miles thick, and take 17,500 years to read! In class today we will explore another way to investigate the concept of “deep time” by creating a to-scale geologic timescale. In your table group, collect the following supplies:

Materials Needed:

One measuring tape or yard sticks

One roll of masking tape

Event sheet

Markers or colored pencils

Procedure:

With your group, measure out a line of masking tape 46 feet long. Using the markers, divide the tape into 46 one-foot sections. These sections each represent 100 million years of Earth history. Label the top (or left side) “Today,” and the bottom (or right side) “4,600 ma.” Ma stands for “mega annum” which means million years. You may want to label some of the 100 million year marks for reference.

You also have a plastic bag full of cut-out events in Earth’s history. Mark a line on your timescale and place the title of the event at the appropriate date.

Place each of the events in the appropriate location on your timescale and then answer the following questions:

1) What patterns do you notice about events of a similar color? Give each color group a name based upon the patterns you observe.

a. Blue:

b. Red:

c. Yellow:

2) How might extinctions affect the evolution of organisms that survive the event?

3) In what ways have geologic changes influenced evolutionary events and/or extinctions?

4) How does the length of the history of life help to explain the evolution of single-celled organisms to complex organisms like mammals?

Once you’ve answered all the questions, clean up your timescales placing the events back in the bags, tape in the garbage, and returning the other supplies to the front of the classroom.

Create Your Own Geologic Timescale

DUE:

Task:

We created large-scale geologic timescales in your table groups. For homework, due at the end of the week, you will be required to create one of your own, set within the timeframe of something else. For example, the geologic timescale set within a regular calendar year, or the length of one day. So, at exactly dawn, the Earth is formed, somewhere in the evening the dinosaurs go extinct, and just seconds before midnight modern humans evolve. To calculate when a particular event should happen in YOUR timescale, you need to figure out at what FRACTION of time it happened in Earth History. For example, the first reptiles appeared 350 million years ago. 350 million/4600 million (age of the Earth) = 0.076. So, if you were to use the example of one day, you would find the number of seconds in a day (24 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds = 86,400 seconds in one day). Now, multiply 86,400 seconds by 0.076 = 6,566 seconds before present, or 109 minutes, or 10:11 pm. BE CREATIVE!

|Element |Excellent |Good |In Development (3 pts) |Needs Rethinking (2 pts) |Not Scorable |

| |(5 pts) |(4 pts) | | |(1 pt) |

|On-task time (30%) |Student is on-task |Student is on-task |Student participates |Student is idle in class, |Student does not |

| |~100%, can manage to |~90% of time, working |minimally, is on-task |does not distract others |participate, is a |

| |keep others on task as |positively towards |~75% of class time. |but does not participate. |distraction to others. |

| |well. |completion of | |On-task ~50% of time. |On-task ~25% of time. |

| | |assignments. | | | |

|Teamwork (25%) |Student works to a |Student works well |Student provides some |Student provides minimal |Student does not provide |

| |“good” level but |with team, team |input to questions, but |input, only helps with |input to the group. |

| |actively seeks out input|completes tasks on |only simplistic answers,|physical tasks, does not |Copies answers, does not |

| |from teammates by asking|time and tasks are |often not on task. OR |provide input to questions |help construct timescale, |

| |questions, delegating |shared equally. |student completes all |in the pre-test or the |does not provide input to |

| |tasks, and willing to |Student discusses |tasks without listening |in-class assignment. |discussions. |

| |have tasks delegated to |questions with team |to input of others. | | |

| |them. |and makes connections | | | |

| | |to timescale. | | | |

|In-class questions (15%) |Questions are answered |Students answer all |Students answer all |Students answer almost all |Students provide minimal |

| |correctly, completely, |questions fully and |questions, responses are|questions, but not complete|responses, some questions |

| |and grammatically |correctly. |minimal, some |sentences, connections are |unanswered. |

| |correct. Students have |Connections may be |connections are made, |not made, answers | |

| |discussed with group and|made, but not solid, |poor english/grammar, |demonstrate they have not | |

| |all correct ideas are |obvious they thought |responses demonstrate |thought about the | |

| |present. Solid |about answers, some |mediocre effort. |questions, merely trying to| |

| |connections are made |grammar | |finish. | |

| |between events. |errors/incomplete | | | |

| | |answers. Answer lack | | | |

| | |depth but exist. | | | |

|Homework (30%) |Student uses original |Timescale is complete,|Timescale is complete, |Timescale is mostly |Student does not complete |

| |timescale, is neat and |neat, and all dates |student applies timeline|complete but lacks |timescale, timescale is |

| |complete. Student |are correct and placed|to something other than |creativity. Obvious that |copied from another |

| |places all dates |appropriately on the |calendar year, but maybe|student put in minimal |source, timescale does not|

| |correctly on timescale. |student’s timescale. |uses in class example. |effort. Dates for events |demonstrate any |

| |Student demonstrates |Lacks creativity of a |Dates are mostly correct|are wrong or interpolated |creativity. |

| |they went above and |5 point response, |and applied correctly. |wrong onto new timescale. | |

| |beyond with creativity. |maybe uses in class | | | |

| | |examples. | | | |

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