Date a Rock
URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/date.les.html
Abstract: This lesson shows students that age-dating rocks involves counting atoms and comparing the counts. Students use simulated rock samples, which show a highly magnified selection of 128 atoms, each sample with a different proportion of the atoms of two different elements: a parent radioisotope, and its daughter product. By counting the parent radioactive atoms and knowing the half-life of those atoms, students can figure the number of half-lives since the sample solidified, and therefore the age of the sample.
Grade Level: 6 - 10
Audience:Educator
Learning Resource Type: N/A
Subjects: 
Subjects
Education issues
Instructional materials
Science
Earth and space science
Earth materials
Rocks
Physical science
Nuclear reactions
Radioactivity
Science as inquiry
Science process skills
Analyzing data
Interpreting data
Hypothesizing
Scientific habits of mind
Using mathematics
Format: text/html
Contributors: Evolution and the Nature of Science Institutes (Publisher)
Copyright Information: Copyright 2003 ENSI (Evolution and the Nature of Science Institutes). This material may be copied only for noncommercial classroom teaching purposes, and only if this source is clearly cited.
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