Walk+Back+in+Time

__ TEAMS Class 2 ____ Walk Back in Time __ workshop

“Hello, everyone, welcome today to an experience with Natural History.  In the next 40-minutes we will participate in an exploration of the fossil record of life on Earth during its 4.6 billion years of existence to create a visual image of the Earth’s fossil records and in that, find how long humans have been on the planet in those 4.6 billion years .”

Opener :  “4.6 billion is a huge number. We as humans don’t have a way to measure something this vast and we don’t have a mental model that helps envision it. The fossil record of organisms appearing throughout 4.6 billion years of earth’s history is also placed in numbers so vast, that unless we are geologists using the information everyday, we don’t have a way to recall the information easily.”

Graphic representations of Geologic Time Scale appear on the screen. “Usually students are shown graphic representations in a textbook that designers hope will convey the scope of that huge number and the relative number of years between life forms in the fossil record. There we see where humans appear.”

“Other ways have been created to imagine the vast size. Perhaps some of us have heard or seen a model for visualizing the fossil record and when in these 4.6 billion years humans appeared on Earth .” -“Talk with each other in trios to see if there are mental images to share.” (60 sec. of conversation w/s.c. sitting at tables listening to discussions) -“Did anyone hear a way to imagine 4.6 billion years and where humans first appear in it?” -People share ideas.

- John Hancock building <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">appears on screen to introduce the analogy of the relative size of the fossil record with “the paint on the ceiling of the 60th floor of the John Hancock Building in Boston” being where humans arrived on Earth. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">-The <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">24-hr clock <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">appears on the screen now if it has not been referred to previously and then displayed. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Holding the little yellow star, “We are made of the same things as stars are made of, the chemicals, the soil, the metals, all of life on earth share these. That’s why like trees, we are all carbon life forms. But we did not appear on earth together at the same moment. Let’s experience the fossil record and discover where organisms appear in the 4.6 billion history of the earth’s life.”

Activity :

Walk Back in Time

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">In the parking lot—students pair up and take a banner. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">“Gaze up the slope and guess where the first fossil, bacterial life, 3.6 billion years backwards might be placed.” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Pairs carry their fossil banners, placing them in relation to each other to make the fossil records. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">“HUMANS, FIRST, so everyone put your heels against the curb to start our records building backwards.” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">(begin walking after idenifying the first 6 pairs) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">At the top of the incline, gaze back down, and then look beyond where you are at the 1 billion years not yet walked to The Big Bang.

Explain how pairs calculate the multiple intelligences they think were involved in the activity of Walking Backwards in Time.
 * Assessment ** :

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Remember, not all 8 of the intelligences need to be addressed in any or in every learning experience. But many can be, as we have demonstrated on this walk.”

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hold up the graphic of the circle w/a line through it. ** All for every experience **.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">“If this lesson is taught as a lecture where students listen and take notes, see only the fossil record as a picture, which of the intelligences are favored?”


 * Display the chart list of 8 intelligences **.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">(let folks reply, then pass a list to each group)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">With a list of the eight multiple intelligences in hand, trios and pairs of students are given a task to do while backtracking to the beginning of the walk.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> “What multiple intelligences do you think you each experienced while “walking back in time”? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">“1/8? 2 out of 8? 3 of 8?”

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">“We’ll tell our fractions when we reach the beginning of the walk, so let’s talk while we walk.”

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">At the bottom of the hill we ask, “ What fraction do you, each group, think ?”

Closer : <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Explanation: “A physical experience created a visual memory of 3.6 of the 4.6 billion years of fossil record and the appearance of humans in the long natural history of Earth.”


 * “Multiple Intelligences transform teaching methods ** : <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Not all learning activities must include all of the multiple intelligences, but some things, as with this fossil record visualization, can involve many or most, creating something of lasting memory for all learners.”

Highlighted means we are showing the words while we speak them.


 * Red ** = ** activities **


 * Assessment ** introduces workshop ** take away idea **.


 * Blue ** = ** take away idea **.