One of my students who finished placing several biological and geological events on our History of the Earth Timeline. Students will be disguised to preserve their anonymity.
Two students of mine discussing where to place the events.
This is one of my favorite activities to do with my Biology classes. Students, as well as most adults, have a difficult time appreciating geologic time. We humans tend to think in terms of years and decades, but struggle to comprehend millions and billions of years. These photos don’t give the best perspective of our timeline, as you really can only see the portion of the timeline that represents the present (far right tree) until about 400-500 million years ago. There is another 4 billion years of events to the left of the students. What becomes very apparent to the students is that the events become very packed towards present day, but are sparse and spread out during the first several billion years of the earth’s existence. The students also pointed out that many biological events (pink cards) follow geologic events (blue cards), a great reinforcer of the idea that environmental changes drive the evolution of biological life. There are many other patterns that students can ascertain from the layout of the timeline. Evolution, I believe, is the one principle of life that unites all the principles of life. It can be a difficult topic to cover for many reasons, but this timeline activity is a great foundation activity for the students to begin their appreciation of geologic time and what it can mean for biological changes.
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International Man of Biology 
Eric, International Man of Biology, you are awesome. LOVE your blog and am excited to accompany you and your wife on the next exciting adventure! All the best.
Thanks Denise. I really appreciate that. You should click “Follow” blog and I will be sure to keep you updated with some interesting stories.