I always thought it put things into perspective if, instead of the Gregorian Calendar, we had a kind of "absolute" timeline, going all the way back to the big bang, as well as we can define it as of today, in 2012.
Of course, this would be ridiculously impractical (today's date would be something like year 13,749,999,999.) I only mean this as a learning tool, and to point out just how relatively few years written history has been around.
My question is, do you agree that this would be a helpful learning tool for students to comprehend a kind of birds-eye-view of the timeline?
Here's an example of what I'm talking about. The column on the left would be the year the event on the right-hand column occured:
1 The Big Bang
9,150,000,000 Earth forms
10,150,000,000 simple cells
10,350,000,000 photosynthesis
11,750,000,000 complex cells
12,750,000,000 multicellular life
13,150,000,000 animals
13,250,000,000 fish
13,275,000,000 land plants
13,350,000,000 insects and seeds
13,390,000,000 amphibians
13,450,000,000 reptiles
13,550,000,000 mammals
13,600,000,000 birds
13,620,000,000 flowers
13,685,000,000 dinosaurs die out
13,747,500,000 genus Homo appears
13,749,800,000 modern humans appear
13,749,975,000 Neanderthals disappear
13,749,994,488 writing begins
13,749,995,000 civilization begins along the Euphrates River in Mesopotamia, along the Nile, along the Indus River
13,749,995,988 recorded history (writing down history) HISTORY begins
13,749,997,988 christ is born
13,749,999,999 today
Really puts things into perspective, doesn't it? Do you agree or do you think this would just be confusing to kids? Thanks for the feedback.
