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What activities do you use to introduce the concept of scale in Big History?

Laura Massa

Hello all,

I am curious to hear your ideas on how you introduce the concept of scale in Big History. What activities have you used? 

I started with the History of Me activity, which I love because it allows me to draw parallels between the student's choices and the way historians periodize history. I attached two examples. My students explored The Scale of the Universe  and solved an ad hoc activity. We completed the Narrative and the Thresholds before representing the Human History on a String. I recorded a video when I did it in the hallway. Finally, we practiced the Threshold Concentration Card Game. Tt was a lot of fun.

    

   

  •  , I shared this video in another discussion about the "Draw Your History" activity but I'll share it here too because it's just that good!  introduced me to To Scale: TIME and it really helps put temporal scale into perspective. I've never been able to get the logistics right to go outside and show scale but this video does just that! I also like the message at the end of the video about not taking our precious time on Earth for granted.

  • in reply to ERIN CUNNINGHAM

    Thank you  for sharing this video. I remember watching it before. It is certainly powerful, particularly to place humanity on a temporal perspective. I will definitely use it.

    This year I am leading a sophomore class who faces many challenges. I could use this video as a gateway to an activity about life purpose. As we become aware of our cosmic connection and brief temporal existence, it invites you to reflect upon our human existence and the choices we make.

  • in reply to Laura Massa

    That video is so great, as is the one they made showing the solar system to scale. It's so helpful to visualize the magnitude of things like planets in the solar system or time. They are just to massive to grasp when considering just the number!

  • I like all of these shared examples,  

    But my favorite introduction is with the children's book Zoom.

    Attached is a slide deck I have used in the past. I have many versions of this. But I think this is the most recent. The last couple of slides take us into a scale discussion relative to BHP. If they are not useful just delete or adapt!

    Zoom scale slides