ABSTRACT
This activity helps to develop children's understanding of the large timescale of 'deep time'. The timeline of Earth is physically represented and key evolutionary points are highlighted in this activity using a toilet roll. The main purpose of this activity is to show how small the amount of time that humans have inhabited Earth is in comparison to its history. This involves large numbers! One billion is now generally accepted as the American 1,000,000,000, so Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Evolution is the gradual changing of the features of living organisms through long periods of time to produce species which are in some way unlike the original ones. Mix up the cards; children quickly reorder the timeline using their new card. Create a timeline of historical events since humans first appeared on Earth, either global or related to British history, with each group researching an event and creating a 'fact file' card.
