Geologic Time Mini-Poster
Scientists estimate that the Earth is about 4.6 billion years old. Imagine shrinking the timeline of earth
down to 1 year, with January first representing Earth’s beginning and December 31 st representing today.
If you traveled back in time to your date of birth, what would be happening at that time period? In this
activity you will create a "Geologic Mini Poster" to show others what was happening back then.
1. First, you need to figure out when you were born in geologic terms. In other words, if all of geologic
time were compressed into one year, during which time period does your birthday fall? This task
involves solving ratio problems. Follow the steps below. Record your work and answers on your paper.
A. Divide the age of the Earth (4.6 billion years or 4,600 million
years) by the number of days in a year. This gives you how
many years are represented by one day on your scale.
B. Next add the number of days from the beginning of the year until
your birthday. (Include January 1st and your birthday.
C. Subtract this number of days from 365 (the total number of days
in a year). Geologic time is recorded in terms of millions of years
ago (MYA). It counts back from the present. (365 - #)
D. Figure out the equivalent number of years on the geologic time
scale by multiplying the answer to step C by the answer to step
A above. (A x C)
E. Round to the nearest million years.
F. Put these two items (birthday and calculated mya) in the first
box on your mini-poster.
2. Using this website, determine the names given to the Eon, Era and
Period that correspond to this year in earth’s history. Put these in
the first box of your mini-poster.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_time_scale
Number of Days per Month
January
31
February
28
March
31
April
30
May
31
June
30
July
31
August
31
September
30
October
31
November
30
December
31
3. Use these Web resources to study this time period.
www.Palaeos.com/timescale/index.html
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/change/deeptime/
http://deeptime.info/
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/Geologictime.html
http://media.hhmi.org/biointeractive/click/deeptime/
http://media.hhmi.org/biointeractive/earthviewer_web/earthviewer.html
4. In both of the two centrally located boxes, include written information and a picture/graphic that
relates to conditions of earth or of life on earth at that year/date in history. (You will most likely not
find information about your EXACT date, but should look for things close to that date or within that
period or epoch in Earth’s history.)
a. Physical: This could include events or characteristics about the physical world.
b. Biological: This could be about organisms living on earth or anything influencing life.
5. Finally, in the bottom box of your poster, develop a slogan or catchphrase that helps observers
remember something important about that time in Earth’s history.
Birth Date:
Years Ago
Eon:
Era:
Period:
What’s happening on Earth
Physically:
Biologically: