Lesson Ideas for 8 th Grade Earth Science TESSE 2009 Pat Grant The clocks in rocks

2. Earth is 4.6 billion years old  2.1 Earth’s rocks and other materials provide a record of its history ▪ Fossil record and radiometric dating  2.7 Over Earth’s vast history, both gradual and catastrophic processes have produced enormous changes

 The Early Earth and Plate Tectonics video  5 minute excerpt ▪

Which Rock is Older? E Engage Preparing Teachers for Earth Science

Relative Dating Of Geologic Materials Picking Common Events in Relative Order E Explore xplore Relative Age of Layered Rocks Relative Ages of Layered Rocks in the Grand Canyon Visit Geology of National Parks: 3-D Tours Featuring Park Geology at Students will need 3D glasses. RELATIVE DATING OF GEOLOGIC MATERIALS By Steve Mattox July 2005

Explore More A RELATIVE DATING ACTIVITY MARSHA BARBERMARSHA BARBER and DIANA SCHEIDLE BARTOSDIANA SCHEIDLE BARTOS Who’s on First?

Fossil record tells a story Record

Using popcorn to simulate radioactive decay Popping popcorn in your class is an excellent way to illustrate both the spontaneity and irreversible change associated with radioactive decay. It helps students to understand the unpredictability of decay. Jennifer Wenner, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh,

m/cjh/staff/laker/docume nts/radiodating.pdf Also check out

Drilling Through the Ages NSTA--practical and well- designed lesson plans NSTA ESS =PA120&ots=xZtMwkWSiV&dq=drilling%20through%20t he%20ages&pg=PA122#v=onepage&q=&f=false

 Lesson 1 - What is stratigraphy?  Lesson 2 - Correlation Activity  Lesson 3 -Geologic Time  Lesson 4 - Earth’s History - Lab  Lesson 5 - Environments through Time online tutorial activity

Sample Online Activity Rock Correlation l Correlate the appropriate rock units by drawing a line between the cores. You are given one clue in defining bed "A." Color the appropriate units and name them logically. Make a legend so your teacher can easily see the results. Describe what units are missing in section 3.

Randall M Richardson University of Arizona, Department of Geosciences After having talked about the geologic time scale, get two volunteers from the class to hold a rope that is 50 feet long. Say that one end is the beginning of the Earth (4.6 billion years ago), and the other is today. Then give out 16 clothes pins and ask various students to put a clothes pin on the 'time line' at various 'geologic events'. Throughout the activity you can have students calculate percentages of Earth History for major geologic events, and compare it to their own ages. On their time scale, the dinosaurs died only about two 'months' ago! The exercise is very effective at letting them get a sense of how long geologic time is, and how 'recently' some major geologic events happened when you consider a time scale that is the age of the earth.

Geologic Time Scale