Introduction
Hello team and congratulations! You have been selectively chosen as one of several new research teams for the soon to be built Delavan Museum of Natural History. Each and every one of you has been hand selected to give this new museum the strongest possible set of research specialists that Delavan could offer.
Task
As scientific leaders of this museum, you have been tasked with a very important job before the museum is to open. Your task is to research a specific period that will be assigned to you by the generous sponsors of the museum. With this research, the sponsors want your team to develop a timeline that will then be placed in the Earth History portion of the museum.
To engage visitors while in the museum, the sponsors also want you to develop at least SIX questions that can be answered using the timeline that you created. To keep visitors from becoming bored with questions that would normally be too easy, it has been requested that you make questions using a Bloom's Taxonomy guide (this will be provided as a handout)
Process
Each team will be assigned a specific period of Earth’s History. Using at least TWO credible resources that have been provided by the sponsors, you will use them to further research your period, develop questions that you would like guests to answer while exploring this part of the museum, and detailed information of your periods in the form of a timeline. Be sure to create a simple work cited page that will be attached to your questions. Below are the set requirements that must be included in order to complete this crucial task.
The Questions: Before you are able to get started on your timeline, you must first learn a little bit about your specific period. Once you have done that, you will have to decide what you want guests to learn and focus on while looking at your timeline. In order to complete this portion of the task, you must construct at least SIX well thought out questions that require the guests and other viewers to think critically and really search for details in your timeline. To complete this task, you will be provided with a Bloom’s Question Starters for Higher Order Thinking and use this to develop your questions.
Questions must include the following criteria:
6 Questions Total about your period
3 General Knowledge (Levels 1,2,3)
3 Higher Order Thinking (Levels 4,5,6) with 1 question that must address a relationship between a geological event and biological event.
Answers for the questions must be provided
Questions must be:
- From the appropriate levels of thinking
- Well-constructed (grammatically correct and words spelled correctly)
- Complete answers
- Typed
- From your assigned period
The Timeline:
Your timeline should include at least the following:
4 events that took place in the Plant Kingdom
4 events that took place in the Animal Kingdom
4 geological events that occurred
4 climatic events that occurred
When finished, these timelines will be presented to fellow teams that have been assigned similar projects. These timelines will be used for educational purposes and will be viewed by many, so it is imperative that these timelines are creative, neat, colorful and accurate.
Listed below are credible sources that can be used for this activity:
http://earthsci.org/fossils/youngp/periods/periods.html
http://paleobiology.si.edu/geotime/main/htmlversion/foundation_dating1.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/history_of_the_earth
Evaluation
Rubrics for the oral presentation and timeline will be distributed during the time of research.