4.2 & 4.3: The Geologic Time Scale

Last week, we learned that fossils give us a glimpse back in time. We also learned that thousands of fossils were found at the Rancho la Brea. That's one site! Millions of pounds of fossils covering only a few tens of thousands of years! The Earth is more than four and a half BILLION years old! In Social Studies you may cover 100 to 1000 years in a year at school. How do we take all that information and laid down over 4.5 billion years and learn about it in a week and a half?

We don't come close, but the Geologic Time Scale is a good start.

We have looked at what fossils can tell us. Now this week we will ask:

How are these facts put in chronological order?
What can we learn from looking at the whole history of the Earth?

Contract 8.9 will have you making a diagram of the periods of the Earth, researching index fossils and then putting them into place on the Geologic time Scale, explaining change over time on Earth, and trying to explain just what is Half-life?

Here are some of this weeks A contracts

From Contract 8.9