![]() ![]() Remember, the use of time, volume, or mass in your metaphor would be just dandy. Known age of the Earth (years before present)įor example, suppose your metaphor uses distance. The general equation used to generate numbers in your metaphor which will be true to scale is: Known age of past event (years before present) ![]() depending upon what type of metaphor you choose to work with. Units in the metaphor model can be in time, distance, volume, mass, etc. The method used to determine a metaphor value true-to-scale will be similar for all metaphors. Have fun! Be creative! No metaphor is too silly, as long as your math is correct and your choice has meaning to you. Write an essay that: (1) discusses why you chose the metaphor you used (2) shows your math calculations and (3) discusses what you learned from this exercise including your perspective of where humans fit in the grand scheme of things. To better understand the concept of geologic time, have students produce a time-scale metaphor to share with the class that is true to scale and reflects some of the important events in the history of the Earth (see list on the following page). This exercise begins to make time more "three dimensional" and most importantly, students gain a better appreciation for geologic time and our Earth's history. Perhaps we can only hope that students catch glimpses of our rich geologic heritage, particularly when most of our teaching is done in a classroom and not in a field setting. Yet it is very difficult for humans to appreciate time beyond that of one or two generations, much less hundreds, thousands, millions and billions of years. Unraveling time and the Earth's biologic history are arguably geology's most important contributions to humanity. To introduce students to the vastness of geologic time and the concept of scale.
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