Activity 2: What Happened When?

Focus
The evolutionary processes which have created the unique features of the World Heritage Area.

Background
The Evolution in Motion poster shows many of the tropical rainforest’s plants and animals represent an unbroken chain stretching back to the earliest life forms 500 million years ago. In contrast, early humans evolved only two million years ago. In the last 100,000 years, the ancestors of today’s Rainforest Aboriginal people were the first humans to migrate to Australia. Activities outlined on the poster highlight the ongoing process of evolution and the relatively recent arrival of humans.

Pedagogy/teaching strategies
• A timeline shows changes over the last 500 million years.

Activity sequence
1. One child steps out 50 foot lengths. Each foot length represents 10 million years. Mark and label 500, 400, 300, 200, 100 and 0 million years.
2. Divide the class into ten groups. Each group is assigned a stage on the timeline and researches to find more information about what was happening at that time.
3. Group presenters take turns to share their information with the rest of the class, beginning with 500 million years ago.
4. Work through the six activities outlined on the poster.
5. Humans evolved around the last two million years. Focus on the length of the big toe on the last step of the 500 million year timeline to show how long humans have lived on Earth.
6. Draw or make a model of an animal shown on the poster. (eg. stromatolites, trilobites, lungfish, form ferns, dragonfly, muttaburrasaurus, Idiospermum, ancient platypus, golden penda, golden bowerbird, northern bettong, tree-kangaroo (see Poster Activity 2).
7. Fill in a retrieval chart (see Poster Activity 3).