How Big is Precambrian Time?

First you will be assigned to a team of 3 students.  As described in task section, there are three projects to be completed.  All three projects require research into the geologic timeline of the Earth.  Your and your group should read through the available resources and become familiar with the general components of the Earth's history.  Keep in mind that your exhibits want to emphasize the great length of time of the Precambrian Era, which makes up 88% of Earth's history, and many important developments occurred during this era.  The Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic are important too, and must be covered; but they have been displayed in many past exhibits and are well known.

Questions to keep in mind include

  What major events occurred during the timeline, especially in the Precambrian Era?

  How can I emphasize the great span of time that it took life to evolve from its simplest form into more complex organisms?

  What major environmental factors created or were due to the evolution of the Earth system?

  What fraction of the Earth's history has humanity been here?  It is very small and this fact needs to be displayed in the exhibits.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/geologictime.php

http://paleobiology.si.edu/geotime/main/

http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm

http://www.fossils-facts-and-finds.com/geologic_time_line.html

http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/toiletpaper/history.html

     The three projects each have a different character.  If you are the artist of your group, you may want to do the first project, where an exciting, eye-catching timeline must be created to be displayed on the museum wall.  You are given 5 meters of wall space to use.  If you use a scale of 1 centimeter = 10 million years, the lifetime of the Earth can be contained within 4.6 meters.  This will leave 0.4 meters to provide a description of the exhibit.  Start at one end of the exhibit area with an introduction.  Proceed with the formation of the Earth at 0 cm, then use a graphic and label to mark each major event at the appropriate distance along the chart.  Use colors to differentiate the eras and a bold timeline to indicate number of years until the present.  The present time should be at the end of the chart at 460 centimeters.  Indicate mankind's duration on the timeline by using a magnified view of the end of the timeline. 

     If you are the technology guru of your group, you may want to concentrate on the second project, where you may use MS MovieMaker or MS PhotoStory3 to condense the history of the Earth into a one-minute video.  This video must have graphics brought in from the internet to illustrate the major points and shown at the appropriate time in history.  There is an example of this concept at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXSEyttblMI  

where the evolution of life is condensed into 60 seconds.  Your video should rely more on colorful photos and graphics, rather than the verbage that the example uses.  Another example is at http://fr.truveo.com/The-cosmic-calendar-history-of-the-Universe-in-a/id/4129532935

      If you are the daydreamer of your group, the the last exhibit will be yours.  In this last exhibit of the muesum hall, you will develop an exhibit that speculates on the possible timeline of the future.  We know that we are in an interglacial warm spell and that Ice Ages are likely to return.  The continents will again collide, altering the climate.  How will humanity cope with these changes.  We know that the Sun will slowly become warmer as time goes on and bloat into a red giant star in about 2 billion years.  How will life cope with these changes.  Speculate on the possibility that mankind may develop a capacity for real space travel.  Will we migrate to other planets or other stars?  Assume that we become a space-faring species and that we develop starships that can travel 10% the speed of light.  How long will it take us to colonize the nearest stars, or to populate the entire galaxy?  Can we ever hope of going to other galaxies?  Develop a graphic, model, video, or some other form of presentation that sets the public's mind wondering about the future of hunamity in Earth's history.  You may want to look at the following rescources,

http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/tl1.html

http://humanknowledge.net/SocialScience/Futurology/Timeline.html