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The Universe At Your Fingertips Activity: Cosmic Calendar

 

Introduction

Activity Description

Goals and Tips

Preparation

Extending the Activity

Cosmic Spinner

Cosmic Calendar Math

Goals and Tips

Tips and Suggestions

For earlier grades, give students the selected set of events or have them create pictures for the events provided.

The mathematics used to determine a relative date on the time line can be done as a class rather than as an individual activity. However, encourage students in later grades to do the math and use division and remainders to identify the actual date or time for particular events. You can add additional events for later grades corresponding to material already covered in class.

Present the activities as hall displays. Encourage your students to think about how they could explain the model calendar to others. One way is to annotate each event and include what evidence scientists have to support their estimates. For example, the age of the solar system is based on the radioactive dating of meteorites and moon rocks.

Have students research a particular era on the model calendar and develop a more detailed "inset" or "zoom-in" view. For example, the age of the dinosaurs from 200+million years ago could be broken into specific geological periods (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, etc.).

Preparation

Materials

For the classroom demonstration you need:

1. Twelve monthly calendars

2. Clothesline and clothespins (optional - to string the calendar across the classroom)

3. Cosmic Cards for each major event with the date of the event written on the back (covered with a piece of paper).

Each student group will need:

1. Cosmic Calendar handout

2. Large sheet of construction paper

3. Glue

4. Scissors

5. Optional: Cosmic Spinner

Extending the Activity

1. Have younger students (third to fifth graders) assemble and decorate the Cosmic Spinner. They can make additional bottom disks with different events and dates.

2. Have students design their own cosmic timelines in their notebooks and include information and scale drawings.

3. Have students work in groups to design mobiles using hangers and string.

4. Designate an entire hall in the school as a cosmic timeline. Have students create drawings and captions to describe the major events and hang these along the time line. Have one group make a poster to explain the timeline concept to other students.

Extensions for Older Students (Grades 7-9)

1. After students have been introduced to the idea of compressing the events since the Big Bang into a single year, have the students brainstorm about some of the most important events that happened between the Big Bang and now.

2. Have students do library research to determine how long ago the various events they have selected happened. Each student or group can be responsible for a manageable number of events to research. If time is short, you may need to provide the times associated with the major events in cosmic history.

3. Have students calculate where in the cosmic calendar year the various events will be placed. To do this, the students need to know the age of the universe. You might have students research this, or simply use 15 billion years (the value Sagan uses in his book). Note that this is currently under debate as new data comes in from the Hubble Space Telescope and other instruments. You can print out the Cosmic Calendar Math worksheet to help students set up the equations for this calculation.

Online resources:

Basic cosmology primer from NASA.

A Solar System scale model activity The Earth as a Peppercorn