Middle and High School … from a Montessori Point of View
With a larger class, and quite a bit of space in the gym, I had more flexibility working on the toilet paper timeline compared to the last time. I built in a friendly race to see which group could find a set of events first, and allowed me to highlight nine different, important, series of … Continue reading “Assessment with the Toilet Paper Timeline of Earth History”
Jennifer Wenner has posted a beautiful demonstration of geologic time using toilet paper for the timeline at SERC. You’ll need a 1000 sheet roll and by the time you’re done there will be toilet paper everywhere. This is a great demonstration because as you unroll the toilet paper you get a great feel for the … Continue reading “Toilet Paper Timeline of Earth History”
Joel Cayford has posted a nice image showing the composition of the atmosphere over time — since the formation of the Earth. Note that, although the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and life has been around for over 4 billion years, there has only been oxygen in the atmosphere for about 2 billion years. … Continue reading “History of the Atmosphere (from the Formation of the Earth)”
Looking at the smear slides of Coon Creek Sediment Matrix got me thinking about just how important these little, microscopic shells have been for what we know about the Earth’s past climate. In fact, they provide the background knowledge that we have about the changes in climate that we’re seeing today. Back in the 1970’s … Continue reading “How Microscopic Shells can tell us the History of the Earth’s Climate”
In the early solar system, 4.5 billion years ago, the planets were still coalescing, something enormous hit the Earth. After it formed, huge impacts shaped the surface of the moon into what we see today. NASA takes up the story: These videos are awesome introductions to the early history of the Earth, Moon, and solar … Continue reading “The History of the Moon”
Spurred by Philip Stewart‘s comment that, “The first ever image of the periodic system was a helix, wound round a cylinder by a Frenchman, Chancourtois, in 1862,” I was looking up de Chancourtois and came across David Black’s Periodic Table Videos. They put things into a useful historical context as they explore how the patterns … Continue reading “The History of the Periodic Table”
The magnitude 8.9 earthquake that devastated coastal areas in Japan shows up very clearly on the United States Geologic Survey’s recent earthquake page. Based on our studies of plate tectonics, we can see why Japan is so prone to earthquakes, and we can also see why the earthquake occurred exactly where it did. View Larger … Continue reading “Plate Tectonics and the Earthquake in Japan”