Middle School Inquiry Lab on Geologic Time Scale
In this lab students will use index fossils to organize layers of the Earth in relation to the geologic time scale.
Each inquiry lab will contain an essential question that will drive the lesson and make students think. For this lesson, the essential question is:
- How do paleontologists use index fossils to date rock layers?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND MATERIALS LIST:
Students will begin the lab by reading the essential question and background information. This can be done individually, as lab groups, or as a whole class. If you consider lab groups, you also might include some type of whole class formative checks before digging into the lab.
Materials List:
- geologic time scale cards
- internet access
- international chronostratigraphic chart
PROCEDURE:
For this lab, students will pay attention to fossils present on each card. Students arrange cards from oldest to youngest. Students are asked as to why they chose their order of cards. Students research correct era and periods for which each fossil listed on the cards lived. Identifying the correct order, students record their answers from most recent to oldest layer. Once complete with fossil identification, students create a timeline to show the range of times when each fossil lived.
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING:
At this point in the lab, students will be checked for understanding by answering questions about their findings. Here is one that comes with the lab:
- Why is ginkgo not an index fossil?
CONCLUSION
Students will go back to the essential question and write a CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) to conclude the lab. Once completed, students will reflect back on their learning by answering the following questions:
- What are the qualifications to be classified as an index fossil?
- Rock layers can be compared to clothes in a laundry hamper. Explain how this is true.
MODIFIED AND INDEPENDENT INQUIRY VERSIONS
All of the Kesler Science inquiry labs come with three different modification levels. Each lab is differentiated using the icons below.
STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
NGSS: MS-ESS1-4 – Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history.
