Great opener for a Geology course

I really love this activity! Began my Geology class (high school) with this activity. My students were so engaged and asked great questions as they worked through it. I modified the events ... See More

I really love this activity! Began my Geology class (high school) with this activity. My students were so engaged and asked great questions as they worked through it. I modified the events list slightly to add in some regional geologic events. This is a terrific way to quickly reveal student misconceptions and have the time to circulate to each group to discuss and answer questions. This is an amazing activity, so simple and inexpensive (about $10 total for 6 group sets, if you already have the meter sticks). Highly recommended!

Really great activity!

I have used this activity since a friend of mine actually used it as part of his dissertation research with undergraduate geology students. It really provides an excellent way to quickly det... See More

I have used this activity since a friend of mine actually used it as part of his dissertation research with undergraduate geology students. It really provides an excellent way to quickly determine student misconceptions and to start addressing them. I recommend this activity as written or slightly modified for middle school (my level), high school (the author's) or undergraduate. After this activity you can easily lead into discussions of relative and absolute time (something I have seen high school and undergraduates wrestle with and an essential topic in understanding scientists concept of deep time).