Correlating Sedimentary Strata

This activity provides a basic knowledge of the principle of tree ring dating by using simulated core samples. Students first determine the age of a “tree cut down in 2019” then extend their understanding of tree ring correlation by determining the age of a “tree cut down” decades ago.

Fossils provide important evidence about changes in life on Earth. This kit provides students with the opportunity to handle and examine eight different fossils from various localities and geologic ages. Fossils of species that are no longer living provide evidence for extinction; fossils of species similar but not identical to those alive today provide...

Using a model, in the form of a game, students make sense of the different geological processes by which earth materials are cycled and the ways that these processes produce the three different types of rock. Students also consider how the flow of energy drives various geological processes that form rock. Finally, students develop...

This activity begins with a fictional newspaper story describing how hikers may have discovered diamonds in a national forest. In Part I, students then observe rock samples and use a table of characteristics to help identify each rock as igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary. Students then use this knowledge to identify the type of rock...

Student groups use specially designed and annotated puzzle pieces representing the earth’s continents to investigate the idea of continental drift. In Part I, an exploratory activity, students attempt to fit the puzzle pieces into one large continent using clues provided by the shape and the geologic evidence contained on each piece. In...

This activity provides an active-learning alternative to traditional passive methods of studying the rock cycle. As students “become” a small quantity of earth material and “travel” through the rock cycle, they experience the interrelated processes and materials that shape the world around us. Eight rock cycle stations, each representing a...