Determining Age Of Rocks And Fossils

More of a mini-unit than a lesson, these activities lead inquisitors through a survey of oil deposits. In the first part, they read about and view diagrams of sedimentary rock layers that trap oil. Next, they test porosity and...

Practicing paleontologists map the geologic time scale, simulate the formation of sedimentary rock, and analyze fossil data. Instructions for four activities and five assessment choices are provided for the teacher. This comprehensive...

This set of activities from the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology has students investigating how relative dating and absolute dating methods are used to determine the age of rocks and fossils.

Engage young biologists with four laboratory activities that explore the fossil record. Learners examine fossil images, a fossil kit, the rock record, and geologic time scale. They even experiment with the oxygen production of an Elodea...

Rock out with the second installment of a five-part series on earth materials and processes. Your budding geologists make observations of given rock samples and posit classification systems for rocks. They then learn about the accepted...

What can layers of rock teach us about the climate? Young scientists solve a mystery about who stole a cookie by applying the law of superposition. Then, they apply the same concept to solve a more difficult mystery, trying to determine...

What was the paleontologist's favorite album? The fossil record! Introduce the concept of fossils as evidence for evolution to your biology class with an inspiring video. The narrator of the Fuse School video from the Evolution playlist...

Time is growing short. Teams work together to identify physical properties of rocks in order to determine the properties that would best suit their cavern shelter design.

Math rocks! Cavern design teams determine the rankings of rock types based upon desirability points. The points are connected to the properties of the rocks and their usefulness in building a cavern. 

What can this rock be? Pupils pretend to be paleontologists by sketching fossils and making predictions about their types. To determine whether they can identify the type of dinosaur, class members compare their observations and...