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Understanding geologic time and fossil dating |
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Rationale |
This interactive web-based activity is appealing to students, clear in presentation and interactive. The lesson teaches geologic time, law of superposition, radiometric dating as well as relative dating of fossils and rocks. Students should be aware of how fossils were dated when they are placing certain organisms on continents to determine continent location at a given time (Lesson 4 of this section). |
| Instructions | This site can be used by individual students, students in small groups at one computer, or as a whole class activity using a computer and projector. Choose between the two activities depending on your classroom time requirements and student needs. |
| Resources | A Comprehensive lesson is provided in the module Understanding Geologic Time: Resources for the teacher for Understanding Geologic Time: go to the Getting Started teacher section
of this site before having students use it. The main page for Understanding Geologic Time is: Resource for students for Understanding Geologic Time: Briefer lesson on geologic time : A briefer version of this lesson is found in the section Geologic Time contained in the module Stories from the Fossil Record. Resources for the teacher:
The main page for Stories from the Fossil Record is http://www.teachingboxes.org/catalog.jsp?id=DLESE-000-000-004-833 Resources for students: The student section is at http://www.teachingboxes.org/catalog.jsp?id=DLESE-000-000-004-831
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| Materials | Paper, pencils for time lines; computers for students or computer with data projector |
| Teacher preparation | None |
| Ideas on closing the lesson (synthesis) | Use review activities listed on teacher page. |