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The passage of time is a relative concept. For example, if you ask your
children to keep their eyes closed for one minute, many will open them
much earlier, and some much later. Adults, also, often have difficulty
estimating the passage of time. This difficulty is sharply magnified when
children, and adults, try to envision the vast scale of geologic time.
In addition, your children may have been seriously misled by fictional
movies and other media which distort life through time for entertainment.
For example, the spectacle of humans fighting off dinosaurs may have led
some children to think that dinosaurs and humans coexisted. In fact, nothing
could be further from the truth. Children may also have little idea of
how fossils provide evidence not only of past animal life (the fossil
record) but also of the age of rocks (geological record). It is very important
to use every opportunity to help children grasp the accepted scientific
explanations and concepts as accurately as possible. They need to achieve
this through an understanding of how scientists gather, analyze, interpret,
and reconstruct the past.
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