A visual timeline or infographic of cosmic history, Big Bang to today, plus a short scale note.
Hand-drawn or printed, on poster board or a long strip of paper. A long scroll is a great way to make a true-scale line feel as long as it really is.
A single-page infographic or a scrolling slide/web design. Any tool works — just keep the scale labeled.
Read the Deep Dive first — it covers the Big Bang evidence and the early universe that this project needs.
A starting list of milestones with approximate times. Use at least 12, covering all three eras. You may add your own events — just check the dates with a reliable source.
| Event | After the Big Bang | How long ago | Era |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Bang | 0 | 13.8 billion years | Early universe |
| Inflation | < 10⁻³² second | 13.8 billion years | Early universe |
| Protons and neutrons form | ~ 1 millionth of a second | 13.8 billion years | Early universe |
| Helium nuclei form | ~ 3–20 minutes | 13.8 billion years | Early universe |
| First atoms; CMB released | ~ 380,000 years | 13.8 billion years | Early universe |
| Cosmic dark ages | ~ 380,000 yr – 100 Myr | 13.8–13.7 billion years | Early universe |
| First stars | ~ 100–200 million years | ~13.6 billion years | Stars & galaxies |
| Earliest galaxies seen by JWST | < 300 million years | ~13.5 billion years | Stars & galaxies |
| Milky Way begins to take shape | ~ 1 billion years | ~13 billion years | Stars & galaxies |
| Most active era of star formation | ~ 3–4 billion years | ~10 billion years | Stars & galaxies |
| Dark energy takes over; expansion speeds up | ~ 9 billion years | ~5 billion years | Stars & galaxies |
| Sun and Earth form | ~ 9.2 billion years | 4.6 billion years | Our home |
| Moon forms | ~ 9.3 billion years | ~4.5 billion years | Our home |
| Earliest evidence of life | ~ 10 billion years | ~3.5–4 billion years | Our home |
| Oxygen builds up in Earth's air | ~ 11.4 billion years | ~2.4 billion years | Our home |
| Complex animals appear | ~ 13.26 billion years | ~540 million years | Our home |
| Dinosaurs die out | ~ 13.73 billion years | 66 million years | Our home |
| Modern humans appear | ~ 13.8 billion years | ~300,000 years | Our home |
| Hubble discovers expansion | 13.8 billion years | ~100 years (1929) | Our home |
Times are rounded, and some early-universe and early-life dates are still actively debated. "~" means approximately.
Every option distorts something. Pick one on purpose — the Deep Dive's interactive timeline and cosmic calendar let you test them.
Every timeline needs one, printed right on it. Here's a model — for a design you shouldn't copy exactly.
"My main line is linear: 1 cm = 500 million years, so the whole strip is 27.6 cm long. On that scale the first 380,000 years is thinner than a pencil line, so I added a zoom box that uses a logarithmic scale for the first 380,000 years. A second zoom box shows the last 600 million years. The main line is honest about how long things took; the zoom boxes let you actually read the crowded parts."
Evidence tags can be as simple as a small icon beside an event — 📡 CMB, ⚛️ element abundances, 🔭 lookback observations, 🦴 fossils — with a key explaining each.
Every item below has to show up somewhere on your timeline — check them off as you go.
A starting point — adjust weights to fit your class before assigning.
| Category | Weight | Exemplary | Proficient | Developing | Incomplete |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy & Order | 30 pts | Every event is in the right order with a correct time, and each has a clear one-sentence description. | One or two times or descriptions off; order correct. | Several events out of order or with wrong times. | Timeline largely missing. |
| Scale Strategy | 20 pts | A deliberate, labeled scale (with zoom insets or breaks where needed) and a scale note explaining the choice and what it distorts. | Scale is labeled and reasonable, but the scale note is thin. | Scale unclear or unlabeled; spacing looks arbitrary. | No scale or scale note. |
| Coverage | 20 pts | At least 12 events spanning all three eras: the early universe, stars and galaxies, and our home. | 12 events, but one era is thin. | Fewer than 12 events, or an entire era missing. | Only a few events. |
| Evidence Tags | 15 pts | At least three events are tagged with the evidence that tells us about them (e.g. the CMB, element abundances, lookback observations, fossils). | Evidence tags present, but one is vague or mismatched. | Only one tag, or tags that don't match the event. | No evidence tags. |
| Design & Readability | 15 pts | Clean, readable, and visually clear; a viewer can follow the story at a glance. | Mostly clear with minor clutter. | Crowded or hard to follow. | Not submitted. |
🔭 Project 5.2.3 · Unit 5 of 6 · Single Semester