Using student-created metaphors to comprehend geologic time . Journal of Geological Education. We use this exercise to introduce students to the vastness of geologic time and to hope they better appreciate the concept of scale. Most students are amazed and shocked by this exercise.
Students create a metaphor that is presented to the class.
We've all done it. We also have students memorize the time scale as part of an earnest effort to facillitate students' appreciation of geologic time. Yet, sometimes despite our best intentions, we fall short. Unravelling time and the earth's biologic history are arguably geology's most important contributions to humanity. Yet, it is very difficult for humans to appreciate time beyond that of one or two generations, much less hundreds, thousands, millions and billions of years.