Your geology class practices taking core samples of a potato to examine the stratigraphy. This is a terrific modeling lesson that helps youngsters visualize strata that cannot be seen from the surface of the ground. The directions...

Seventh graders view "Volcano" by National Geographic Video. They experiment with baking soda and study lava flow. They describe volcano and earthquake patterns. They analyze weather and climate changes and how they relate to the natural...

Students explore the use of stratigraphy to date objects by sorting the material in the wastebasket. They make a list of actual items from the garbage can and their possible uses and categorize the artifacts. T

Second graders create stratified soil levels using pictures. In this earth science lesson, 2nd graders identify "artifacts" from 3 historic eras and divide them into 3 soil levels. Then they draw their own multi-level soil profile and...

Students examine how artifacts are discovered and explore their significance as it pertains to gathering important information. In this artifacts lesson, students obtain knowledge about the way artifacts are excavated and examine an...

Students generate a time line, interpreting the ways in which past peoples may have used the artifacts at their disposal. Students also develop a poster showing a theoretical stratigraphic deposit, and then analyze the cultural materials...

Students look at the findings of a Hopi Indian dig site in order to reconstruct the sequence of events that occurred in the past. They examine the stratigraphy while making multiple hypothesis about the artifacts and their locations at...

Juvenile geologists drill clear plastic straws down into a playdough sedimentary rock model, pulling out sample rock cores. As they analyze their cores, they apply the law of superposition and discover that originally horizontal layers...

Take the old baking soda and vinegar volcano to the next level by using it to study repeated lava flows over time, examine geologic features on Earth and Mars, and speculate about some of the formations on Mars. 

Students investigate radioactivity as a tool for measuring geologic time and how geologists use this information to determine the absolute age of rocks or minerals.

Students study the site of an archaeological dig site in order to begin looking at how they can be interpreted. They look at a soil profile and respond to a research question that simulates a real site. The other questions are used to...

Learners brainstorm a list of nocturnal and diurnal wild animals they see in their community and discuss how the animals would be different if they were living during the Ice Age. Using a handout, they discover how archeologists record...

Students observe the layering process of lava flow with hands-on activities.

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Looks at how stratigraphy can be used to determine the relative ages of rocks, how unconformities occur, ways to match rock layers in different areas, and how...

What kind of evidence could demonstrate that humans have begun to dominate and alter the life systems of Earth and have entered a new geological epoch? This article discusses the suggestion that we have entered the Anthropocene and...