A guided inquiry activity

The author has worked hard to create an activity in which students start to think about how events are related to each other and where they fall in geologic time. Allowing students to jig-sa... See More

The author has worked hard to create an activity in which students start to think about how events are related to each other and where they fall in geologic time. Allowing students to jig-saw information to construct their own geologic timeline for use provides students with a constructivist activity and motivation to complete the puzzle. I have a problem with the time scale described for the whiteboard, as it was not constructed to scale and may introduce misconceptions. I also wonder what happens to the information students contribute in the initial activity about events in their lifetimes - what happened to the information? It is brought up as part of the introduction but never referenced again. Overall, the lesson set-up and design is effective for either middle or high school students, with the above corrections.