In our cross-curricular Social Studies/Science unit, we have been zooming out and looking at the history of the universe. Thus far, we have investigated the events that occurred from the very beginning of time and space (The Big Bang) until the creation of our Earth and solar system (9 billion years). In order to create an understanding of the time between the Big Bang and now, students constructed a timeline to document the major events that happened between then and now. When building our timeline, we decided that 1 meter would represent 1 billion years, 1 centimeter would represent a million years, and 1 millimeter would represent one hundred thousand years.

Each group was given a different period in time and had to illustrate and explain major events on index cards. Students attached their index cards to our 14 meter ribbon. Finally, we worked collaboratively to hang our 14 meter representation of history onto our wall. This project helped us put everything into context and gain a better understanding of the conditions that have slowly led up to our existence. The timeline also showed us the short time frame humans have been on Earth relative to the existence of the universe.