TABLE: Timescales for Human Activity 

Chemical synthesis

10-5

 

Neurotransmitter synthesis

Membrane process

10-4

 

Ligand binding

Neural firings

10-3

 

Neuron process

Neuronal patterns

10-2

 

Multi-neuron process

Vocal articulation

10-1

 

Edge of awareness

Utterance

1-10 seconds

 

Word, holophrase, short monologue; in context

Exchange

2- 102

Seconds to minutes

Dialogue; interpersonal relations ; developing situation

Episode

103

o(15 minutes)

Thematic, functional unit; speech genre, educative

Lesson

103 – 104

Hour

Curriculum genre

Lesson sequence

104

o(2.75 hours)

Macro curriculum genre

School day

105

Day

[“seamless day”]

Unit

106

11.5 days

Thematic, functional unit

Unit sequence

 

 

[rare]

Semester/ Yr Curriculum

107

4 Months

Organizational level; unit in next scale

Multi-year Curriculum

108

o(3.2 years)

Organizational level; limit of institutional planning

Lifespan Educational Development

109

o(32 years)

Biographical timescale;

Identity change

Educational system change

1010

o(320 years)

Historical timescale;

New institutions

 Note: o(time) means times on the order of magnitude of ...

Worldsystem change

1011

3200 years

New cultures, languages; limit of historical records

Ecosystem, climate change

1012

32,000 years

 

 

1013

320,000 years

Last ice age

Evolutionary change

1014

3.2 million years

Scale of human evolution

 

1015

32 million years

Dinosaurs

 

1016

317 million years

Pangaea

Planetary change

1017

3.2 billion years

Origin of life, of planet

Universal change

1018

32 billion years

Cosmological processes