Use dice to simulate radioactive decay rates.
Larger-than-life concepts such as prehistoric time, half-life properties and decay functions can be wrestled down to understandable portions using lesson plans provided by educational and state agencies for free online. Engaging middle school students in hands-on activities makes learning fun, increasing retention rates and the ability to integrate radiometric dating concepts with larger scientific and mathematical concepts later on.
The Radioactive Dating Game
The University of Colorado hosts an interactive Radioactive Dating Game that teaches students about carbon and other radiometric dating types, as well as half-life and decay functions. Students must match the age of items with the percentage of dating elements remaining to win the game. This game can be downloaded for play on computers in classrooms, or it can be played online. This game is also translated into dozens of languages ranging from Arabic to Vietnamese. Related teaching materials and games are also linked on the website.
Bison Bones and Prehistoric Kill Sites
Montana's Office of Public Education offers a lesson plan which teaches students about radiometric dating using information provided online about American Indian bison bones and prehistoric kill sites. The plan guides students through the radiometric analysis of prehistoric evidence, radiometric terminology and half-lives of carbon 14. Instructions for in-classroom half-life graphing games are also included.
Radiometric Dating Games Using Colored Beads and Dice
Use colored beads to simulate rocks and fossils in a radiometric dating game.
Carleton College's Education Department's website has instructions for a hands-on radiometric dating activity. The activity calls for students to simulate half-life properties of isotopes using bags of beads as "rocks and fossils." Appropriate for grades 5 to 8, the activity assigns parent isotopes to different color beads and asks students to solve problems such as arranging the "fossils" in age from youngest to oldest and finding the two "fossils" which are closest in age. The college also offers a game that simulates radioactive decay using dice. Students create a standard decay curve for a fictional element then use the graph information to date "rocks" with the element in them.
Fossil and Rock Strata Cards
The University of California's Museum of Paleontology offers a lesson plan for radiometric dating, which includes sequencing activities and card games. Students are taught the concepts of prehistoric time and radiometric dating using fossil cards and rock strata cards that can be printed from pdf files. The cards must be arranged in proper sequences. After grasping time concepts, students move on to integrate the fossils and rock layers to establish their age. An instructional video explaining radiometric dating is available on the Teachers' Domain site. The video segment comes with follow-up discussion questions and printable essays for the classroom.
Tags: radiometric dating, Dating Game, dating using, decay functions, games also, half-life properties
