One of the greatest challenges for middle school Earth science teachers is helping our students get a feel for the magnitude of the long spans that make up Earth's history. The intent of the strategy presented here is to help middle school students get a feel for the real sizes of powers of 10, and then help them use that understanding by connecting it to a period of time that means something to them, such as a year. The hope is that by connecting a period of time they understand with a power of 10 for which they have developed a benchmark; geologic time will be more meaningful to middle school students. (Contains 3 figures.)