INQUIRY 1

THREE FACES OF TIME

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INQUIRY PROBLEM:

Using the "Timeline of Timepieces" on the History Lab website, solve the following time mysteries:

1. You are a 19th century Aleut person and believe the year is cyclical. What kind of calendar would you use?
2. You are hired to work for Fisher Department Store for the holidays. They give you a heavy paper timecard and say, "Make sure to punch in and out." What do they mean and what would allow you to do this?
3. You have been told that you inhabit the Cenozoic era. What kind of time does that term represent and how old is the fossil in the Timeline of Timepieces that is also from the Cenozoic?

DESCRIPTION

Introduction Activity:
Overview and introduction to kinds of time

History Lab Exhibit:
Timeline of Timepieces

TOPIC & SKILL AREAS

• Cultural perspectives of time
• Technological innovation Time vocabulary
• Time calculation

MATERIALS NEEDED

• Images and Riddles from the "Time Resource Kit" at www.historylab.org
• Video:
  "The Three Faces of Time"

IMPLEMENTATION

1. Print out the Timeline of Timepieces pictures and riddles from the "Time Resource Kit" in the Teachers section of the History Lab web site. Have the students use these pictures to solve the inquiry problems above. (See answers at lower right.)
   TIME: 15 minutes
2. Have the students match the riddles to the objects, then recreate the Timeline of Timepieces by encouraging the group to discuss and organize, from newest to oldest, all of the timekeeping devices represented. You may use the History Lab Artifact Finder database to get more information about each object. Students should try to identify technological change in timekeeping devices as well as differentiate between clocks and calendars.
   TIME: 30-60 minutes
3. Wrap-up: Watch the "Three Faces of Time" video and review the three basic kinds of time.
   TIME: 25 minutes

REFERENCES

BOOKS
Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History. E.G. Richards. Oxford University Press, 1998.

WEBSITE
www.historylab.org
   "Time Resource Kit"

INQUIRY ANSWERS

• Aleut calendar with its pie-shaped, monthly divisions and tiny holes to mark each day
• Time clock
• The Cenozoic is Geologic Time and is represented by the mammoth tooth.

Author: SL
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