1. An Integrated High School Science Curriculum
Voyages Through Time™
An Integrated High School Science Curriculum
Amy Arnold
Good morning, my name is Amy Arnold, and I’m a teacher at Richard Yoakley School in Knoxville. During the Astrobiology workshop in Hawaii, we learned about Voyages Through Time, a cd-based science curriculum for 9th and 10th graders. Every afternoon we did a different activity during the workshop. The curriculum is based on the theme of evolution and includes events ranging from the Big Bang to the evolution of modern technologies.

2. The teaching materials include a teacher CD, student CD, and a student reader. The teacher’s CD is complete with lesson plans, detailed background information, and student handouts. The student CD contains simulation activities, pictures, and information resources. The student readers provide articles to accompany the computer lessons.

3. The educational goals for Voyages Through Time are for students to understand:
Evolution as cumulative changes over time
The various processes underlying these changes
The differing time scales and rates of change
The connections and relationships across these realms of change
Science as a process for advancing our understanding of the natural world

4. The VTT curriculum is divided into six modules:
Cosmic Evolution
Planetary Evolution
Origin of Life
Evolution of Life
Hominid Evolution
Evolution of Technology
Individual modules can also be used in courses such as biology, earth science, geology, or astronomy. We actually only did activities using the first three modules.

5. In the Cosmic Evolution module, the story of the universe is described—beginning with the Big Bang to its evolution into the stars and galaxies we see today.

6. The Earth is a planet brimming with life—two thirds of it is covered with water and much of the land is lush with plants and animals. But our nearest neighbor, the Moon, is quite different. It is cold, riddled with craters, and to all appearances, lifeless. A look at the surfaces of Venus and Mars reveals them to be hellishly hot and bone-chillingly cold, respectively, with little chance of life on them today. How did Earth get to be so different from Venus and Mars? All formed from the same spinning disk of dust and gas, so how did they evolve to such different states? These kinds of questions are addressed by the Planetary Evolution cd.

7. Current evidence indicates that life on Earth began about 3
Current evidence indicates that life on Earth began about 3.8 billion years ago. Yet how life first formed, or even how the biochemical precursors of life developed, and under what conditions these events happened, are not yet understood. Better understood are the fundamental characteristics of life, including basic structures and functions; the approximate timing of key events, such as the buildup of oxygen in the atmosphere and the appearance of eukaryotic cells; and something of the history of the relationships among the three domains of life: archaea, bacteria, and eukaryotes. The Origin of Life module combines what is known about life with the research and debate about life's beginnings and early history.

8. Evolution of Life Module
The great diversity of multi-celled life on Earth today, how this diversity came to be, the processes that shape diversity, and the relationships among living things are the major topics of this module.

9. The hominid family, characterized by bipedal locomotion, appeared between four and five million years ago. This defining event in human evolution was followed by other key events: increased brain size, the initial migration of hominids out of the tropics, and a transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture. In the Hominid Evolution module, the investigation of key events is combined with an examination of this dynamic field.

10. The development of various technologies within the last 10,000 years of human history has been affected by and has affected the environment, human societies, and science.
The Evolution of Technology module combines investigations of these aspects of technology with student projects that illustrate them in detail.

11. This slide was copied from a simulation in the Cosmic Evolution module
This slide was copied from a simulation in the Cosmic Evolution module. In the activity, we were also given a student handout with instructions and questions. We made colored pencil sketches of the spectra of the nebula and for the spectra of the matching elements. Here we see the spectrum of the nebula on top, and that of H below. This looks like hydrogen is probably present.

12. Here we can see that this nebula’s spectrum does not seem to include silicon. The spectra for many other elements were, of course, examined.

13. For additional information, please visit
If you would like to find out more about Voyages Through Time, here’s the website.