Illustrative Mathematics
Accuracy of Carbon 14 Dating II
The scientific issue of carbon-14 dating and exponential decay gets a statistics-based treatment in this problem. The class starts with a basic investigation of carbon content, but then branches out to questions of accuracy and ranges of...
Illustrative Mathematics
Carbon 14 Dating in Practice I
How old is the plant? Here is a task that presents the exponential decay function for carbon 14 in a plant. Pupils use the function to estimate the amount of carbon 14 in the plant when it died and analyze the function to find what the...
Curated OER
Carbon 14 Dating
Evaluating and analyzing exponential functions will help your archaeologists find the amount of Carbon 14 remaining in a plant in this real-life task centered on carbon dating. Learners will also be introduced to the concept of half-life.
Curated OER
Carbon 14 Dating, Variation 2
Your archaeologists begin this task with a table of values to estimate the time passed based on the half-life of Carbon 14 remaining in a plant. They then move on to find when a specific amount of Carbon 14 is present in the same plant,...
Curated OER
Carbon 14 Dating in Practice II
Your archaeologists combine proportional reasoning with exponential functions in a real-life task centered on Carbon 14 dating.
Curated OER
Carbon 14 Dating in Practice I
Analyzing and evaluating exponential functions will help your archaeologists find the amount of Carbon 14 remaining in a plant in this real-life task centered on carbon dating. Learners will also be introduced to the concept of...
Curated OER
Connection to Fine Arts: Carbon-Dating Masterpieces
In this carbon dating worksheet, students read about how carbon-14 is used to date historical paintings. They answer questions about carbon dating and its importance.
Illustrative Mathematics
Accuracy of Carbon 14 Dating I
Here is an activity that is intended to highlight a very important issue about precision in reporting and understanding statements in a realistic scientific context. Discuss different ways of reporting the half life of Carbon 14 using...
Virginia Department of Education
Radioactive Decay and Half-Life
Explain the importance of radioactive half-life as your high school biologists demonstrate the concept by performing a series of steps designed to simulate radioactive decay. Pupils use pennies to perform an experiment and gather data....
PhET
Radioactive Dating Game
Uranium 235 has a half-life of over 700 million years and is the fuel used in the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Pupils see the half-lives and decay rates of Carbon-14 and Uranium-238. They also take measurements of these two...
Curated OER
Carbon-14 Dating
In this carbon dating worksheet, students write and illustrate a comic strip describing the entire process of C-14 dating. Then students complete 6 short answer and 2 fill in the blank questions.
Curated OER
Exponential Decay
Students study exponential decay and its application to radiocarbon dating. In this exponential decay lesson, students use candy to model the time it takes for something to decay. Students also graph the data they collect and describe...
Curated OER
Absolute Ages of Rocks
In this ages of rock worksheet, learners review the processes involved with determining the ages of rocks which includes the radioactive decay of carbon-14. This worksheet has 5 matching and 5 short answer questions.
Curated OER
Carbon Dating
Simulate C-14 decay using M&M and Reese's Pieces candies. For this scatter-plot lesson, students perform an experiment to simulate the half life of C-14. Information is plotted on a scatter-plot. Students answer four comprehension...
Curated OER
Half-Life
In this half-life activity, students are guided through the steps of solving radioactive decay problems. They solve nine problems finding rates of decay, half-life and quantities of substances remaining after given amounts of time.
Curated OER
Absolute Ages of Rocks
For this age of rocks worksheet, students answer five matching questions about terms related to the decay of atoms. They use a strip of paper to simulate half life of atoms and determine the total amount of time it took to deplete the...
Curated OER
Chem 152-Nuclear Chemistry
In this nuclear chemistry worksheet, students answer ten questions about radioactive decay, half life, electron capture and alpha emission.
Curated OER
I'm Late, I'm Late, for a Radioactive Date!
Through the use of an interactive Web site, students explore C-14 and C-14 dating. Then students analyze an article written about the C-14 dating of the Shroud of Turin and draw conclusions.
Virginia Department of Education
Determining Absolute Age
How can radioactive decay help date old objects? Learners explore half-life and radioactive decay by conducting an experiment using pennies to represent atoms. Young scientists graph data from the experiment to identify radioactive decay...
Curated OER
Half-Life Lab
Learners participate in a lab in which they are introduced to carbon-dating. In groups, they use the holes of paper from a hole puncher and determine the rate of retention after shaking coins onto the same area. They record their...
Curated OER
The History of Life
In this history of life worksheet, students complete a crossword puzzle by figuring out the vocabulary words associated with the 11 clues given. Then students review how paleontologists use fossils to learn more about past living things...
PBL Pathways
Potassium-Argon Dating
Find the age of a fictional sample of rocks using a genuine approach. A well-designed lesson asks young mathematicians to use exponential modeling to analyze half-life. As a project-based learning activity, scholars communicate their...
Curated OER
Nuclear Chemistry
In this nuclear chemistry activity, students solve nine decay problems. They determine what forms in each problem given the radioactive element.
Curated OER
Determining the Age of Fossils
High schoolers examine the concept of radioactive dating. In this radioactive dating instructional activity, students investigate how to determine the ages of fossils and rocks as they learn about half-life radioactive decay.