Grade 7: Measuring the Geologic Time Scale
Seventh graders in Mr. Steve Collins’ science class recently modeled Earth’s vast history through a Geologic Time Scale lab. As part of their Earth Science focus, students converted billions of years into metric distances and labeled them along long strips of paper to create accurate, scaled timelines.
The project served as a bridge between studying Earth’s beginnings and exploring how scientists determine the ages of rocks and fossils. It gave seventh graders a clearer picture of how geologists organize “deep time” and record the planet’s 4.5-billion-year story.
By translating enormous spans of time into measurable form, students developed a stronger understanding of how scientists represent and study changes across Earth’s history.