Evolution of
Our Solar System
Activity
Time Lineup
Overview
For children age 12-17 and families.
Work in groups or as a family to place the Event Cards in a timeline of events that have occurred throughout the history of the Earth and Moon.
More information and graphics are available in the Evolution of our Solar System gallery.
What you need:
- Event Cards
- Answer sheet for events
- Open area or hallway for participants to stand in order OR floor or table space to lay out the cards
Procedure:
Here are two suggestions for completing the activity:
Option 1: Human Timeline of the Earth-Moon History (for larger, single groups)
- Share with all participants that they will be using their bodies to create a timeline of the Earth’s and Moon’s shared history.
- Provide each person with an event card.
- Invite everyone to work together to determine which events happened first, second, third, and so on.
- Have them arrange themselves as a human timeline across the room.
- Compare their arrangement with the answers in the answer sheet.
- Discuss the information about the rocks.
- Which rocks are older, rocks from the Earth or rocks from the Moon? (The Moon rocks are older.)
- How common might old Moon rocks be? (Very common; most rocks from the Moon are billions of years old)
- Why might these old Moon rocks be important? (They contain information about things that happened to the Earth and Moon.)
Option 2: Card Timeline of the Earth-Moon History (for a single or multiple, smaller groups)
- Divide the participants into groups of 3-5 people
- Provide each small group of people with a complete set of event cards.
- Ask the groups to work together to arrange the events in order (floor or table space is needed to lay out the cards).
- Share the answer sheet so that the groups can compare their results.
- Discuss the information about the rocks.
- Which rocks are older, rocks from the Earth or rocks from the Moon? (The Moon rocks are older.)
- How common might old Moon rocks be? (Very common; most rocks from the Moon are billions of years old)
- Why might these old Moon rocks be important? (They contain information about things that happened to the Earth and Moon.)
