This is a great way to visualize history using an object that uses 100, making the division fairly straightforward. My 6th graders have had a bit of trouble with the calculations, though. Today, I found this video! Similar concept, just starting with the formation of Earth. Can any of you use this with your rollout of scale?
Just in time for Thursday night football! 
Great share Meaghan Mihalic I'll admit that the football field analogy has always been difficult for me - for lots of reasons. My school doesn't have one! My students don't all know how football works. Having to also explain that there are 100 yards on a football field while kids also wrap their heads around this deep time gets tricky. This video certainly helps and would probably pair well with To Scale Time.
Great share Meaghan Mihalic I'll admit that the football field analogy has always been difficult for me - for lots of reasons. My school doesn't have one! My students don't all know how football works. Having to also explain that there are 100 yards on a football field while kids also wrap their heads around this deep time gets tricky. This video certainly helps and would probably pair well with To Scale Time.
Hi, this is a general reply for any fellow non-Americans on this site. Yards and Football fields do not work for us, so I found this similar activity that works without an (American) Football field and is in metres. I did this with my students using chalk on a concrete area of our school grounds and it worked so well. Great activity.
I fixed up the info in the activity a bit, here it is:
| Oceans and continents start to form | Around 4.4 billion years ago, Earth's surface cooled enough for water to condense and form oceans. Continents began to form from volcanic activity and the cooling of the planet's crust. | 4400 million years ago | 4.4 metres | from present day (end of timeline) | |
| First evidence of life | The earliest evidence of life dates back to about 3.5 billion years ago. Microbial life forms, such as stromatolites, left fossilised remains in ancient rocks. | 3500 million years ago | 3.5 metres | from present day | |
| Start of atmospheric oxygen | Approximately 2.4 billion years ago, cyanobacteria began producing oxygen through photosynthesis. This led to the Great Oxygenation Event, significantly increasing atmospheric oxygen. | 2400 million years ago | 2.4 metres | from present day | |
| Evolution of eukaryotic (non-bacterial) life | Eukaryotic cells, which have a nucleus, DNA and Mitochondria, evolved around 1.8 billion years ago. These cells are more complex than prokaryotic cells and allowed complex life to emerge, like plants, animals (humans!), and fungi. | 1800 million years ago | 1.8 metres | from present day | |
| Cambrian Explosion | About 538.8 million years ago, there was a rapid diversification of life forms known as the Cambrian Explosion. Most major animal groups appeared during this period. | 542 million years ago | 54.2 centimetres | from present day | |
| Plants move on to land | Around 450 million years ago, plants began to colonise land. Early land plants, like liverworts, evolved from green algae and developed adaptations to survive on land. | 450 million years ago | 45 centimetres | from present day | |
| Animals move on to land | Approximately 430 million years ago, the first vertebrates moved onto land. These early tetrapods evolved from fish and developed limbs and lungs to adapt to terrestrial life. | 430 million years ago | 43 centimetres | from present day | |
| Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction | This event wiped out around 90% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial species. It is the largest known mass extinction event. | 251 million years ago | 25.1 centimetres | from present day | |
| Evolution of mammals | Mammals evolved from vertebrates (animals with a backbone) during the Triassic period, around 195 million years ago. They developed characteristics like warm-bloodedness, fur, and more complex brains. | 195 million years ago | 19.5 centimetres | from present day | |
| Opening of the Atlantic Ocean | The Atlantic Ocean began to form around 160 million years ago as the supercontinent Pangaea broke apart. This process continued over millions of years, shaping the continents as we know them today. | 160 million years ago | 16 centimetres | from present day | |
| Extinction of the dinosaurs | Approximately 65 million years ago, a mass extinction event, likely caused by an asteroid impact, led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. This event paved the way for mammals to dominate. | 65 million years ago | 6.5 centimetres | from present day | |
| Rise of the Himalayan mountains | Around 20 million years ago, the collision between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates led to the formation of the Himalayan Mountains. This process continues today. | 20 million years ago | 2 centimetres | from present day | |
| Evolution of our species, Homo sapiens | Homo sapiens, our species, evolved around 200,000 years ago in Africa. They developed advanced tools, language, and culture, eventually spreading across the globe. | 200,000 years ago - 0.2 million years ago | 0.02 centimetres | from present day (0.2 mm) | |
| Extinction of the woolly mammoth | The woolly mammoth went extinct around 10,000 years ago, likely due to a combination of climate change and human hunting. | 10,000 years ago - 0.01 million years ago | 0.001 centimetres | from present day (0.01 mm) | |
Ilja van Weringh this post will be useful for educators teaching abroad. Although I teach in the U.S., I learned the Metric system, so I naturally interpret measurements using that framework. When teaching Big History, I have to be mindful of temporal scales—what Americans call a billion (10⁹) is a trillion (10¹²) in some other regions. For example, the global population is 8 billion expressed in the U.S. but 8 thousand million in many other countries.
