Project Blog - 10/8

Summary:

The Geologic Time Scale is a system of chronological dating that relates geological strata to time. This system is used by geologists, paleontologists, and other Earth scientists to describe the timing and relationships of events that have occurred during Earth's history. Our assignment was to create a interactive display that shows information about the Geologic Time Scale. In order to do this, the class was separated into groups of three or four. Each person of the group is responsible for researching one era of the Geologic Time Scale, including the Precambrian era, the Paleozoic era, the Mesozoic era, and the Cenozoic era. Once each member has completed their research on each topic and aspect of their specific era, the group will collect all of their information and come up with a way to display their project. My group decided to put our project on a tri-fold poster. We would provide the information about each era on little flaps that people can flip up and read information on. Each flap contains a different fact about each era.

Backward-Looking:

The first step in completing this process is researching the information about each era in the Geologic Time Scale. The era I chose to research was the Precambrian era, which is the first era that occurred in the history of Earth. After each member was assigned a specific era, we needed to research several different topics about the eras. This included, the periods in which the era is separated in, what the climate was like during this time, the geological aspects of the era (such as the oceans, mountains, volcanoes, etc.), the continental positioning during this era, the plants that thrived, and the animals that walked the Earth. Once each member of my group completed their research, we started brainstorming ideas on the actual project display. We found that the most cost efficient way of creating a display was to use one of the tri-folds that were provided by our teacher. We decorated the tri-fold by dividing it into four sections for each era. Then we painted each section a color that represented each era. We painted the Precambrian red, the Paleozoic blue, the Mesozoic brown, and the Cenozoic green. Next we wrote the titles for each era on panels that would pop out on the tri-fold. In addition, we decided to make our project interactive by cutting out flaps of color coordinated construction paper and write facts about each era on the corresponding color of construction paper. For final touches, we glued on images/drawings of the plants and animals on the section of the era where they occurred. This step helped make the display less more full and colorful.

Inward-Looking:

When creating this piece of work, I set many goals for my group. An important part of collaborating on a project is to be organized. Our way of organization was planning on what needed to be done and when things needed to be done. The main objective/goal of the project was for my group to put together an interactive display that holds information on each era of the Geologic Time Scale. As we began our research, the first goal was for each member of the team to complete at least the first three questions of the research worksheet on the first day, then finish the next three questions on the second day, and so on. This way we would all be done with the research on schedule with enough time to work on the display. The next goal was to find a way to display the information in a way where it would be interactive and appealing. After talking about potential ideas, we finally found the perfect way to display our project that fit with the design we wanted to present. Other goals my team set were to finish all of the painting of the tri-fold in one day, to finish the titles on the next day, to finish writing all of the information on the flaps on the day after, and to finalize the project by gluing everything on the tri-fold on the last day. As you can tell, our goals constantly changed throughout the process of this project. It all depended on what we accomplished and what we needed to accomplish.

Outward-Looking

If I were to give this project a grade, I would give it an A. I  believe that this piece of work should receive such a high grade because it has exceeded every standard of the project. When looking over the instructions for the project, I reviewed my project to make sure that my group followed all of the directions. The instructions to complete the project were to create an interactive artifact that accurately illustrates the eras that occur in the Earth’s history. Then we would get together with three other geologists which are the other members of your group, and compile all your work into one geologic time poster to present to the client which is the class. My group followed all of these steps in the process of creating our project. In addition, I believe that this grade is deserved because our project was original and creative. Nobody else in our class did their project the way we did ours. Our project was also very organized and appealing. The poster was organized into neat sections and we decorated the poster with a variety of colors, fonts, and colors. 

Forward-Looking;

If I had the chance to do this piece over again, I would only change one thing. In this revision, I would improve the lettering on the poster. I would make the lettering of the facts on each flap of information a little bigger. When presenting our poster to our "client", which is our class, the only criticism we received was that the facts were a bit difficult to read considering the size of the writing. When our clients read the information, they needed to look up close to the poster in order to be able to read the facts correctly. This is why the size of the writing is the only thing I would change about the poster. I believe that everything else on the poster was made to the best of my ability as well as my group's highest potential. So I wouldn't change anything else on the poster even if I had another chance to do the project again next time.