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 as exponential.

Concepts

radioactive dating, carbon dating

Show More Show Less

Additional Tags

science

Show More Show Less

Instructional Ideas

• Have learners work in groups, especially if the number of required pennies is an issue

Classroom Considerations

• Experiment requires a large amount of pennies
• Resource is aligned specifically to Virginia Standards of Learning, so teachers of other states will need to check local and state standards
• The first installment of a three-part series

Pros

• Pre-lesson activity challenges learners to distinguish between relative and absolute dating
• Provides separate graph for aggregate class data in case individual data doesn't show the necessary relationship

Cons

• Resource lacks examples of actually determining absolute age using radioactive dating