April 18, 2024 Classwork

•SC.7.E.6.4 EXPLAIN AND GIVE EXAMPLES OF HOW PHYSICAL

EVIDENCE SUPPORTS SCIENTIFIC THEORIES THAT EARTH HAS
EVOLVED OVER GEOLOGIC TIME DUE TO NATURAL PROCESSES.

Earth’s Evolution

& Rock Dating

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
What methods allow scientists to tell the
age of rocks and what does this tell us
about the Earth’s history?

Multilingual Glossaries for Middle School
Science

Please click on the link below, use your dictionary or the
lesson glossary to look for the meaning of words as you

go through the lesson

Content/Academic Language

English

Spanish

Portuguese

Haitian Creole

absolute age

edad absoluta

idade absoluta

laj absoli

index fossil

índice fósil

índice fóssil

endis fosil

relative age

edad relativa

idade relativa

laj relatif

evolve

evolucionar

evoluir

evolye

intrusion

intrusión

intrusão

entrizyon

extinction

extinción

extinção

disparisyon

fossils

fósiles

fósseis

fosil

law of superposition

ley de superposición

lei da superposição

lwa superpozisyon an

geology

geología

geologia

géologie

radioactive dating

datación radiactiva

namoro radioativo

dat radyo-aktif

Pangea

Pangea

Pangea

Pangea

Multiple Choice

Bellringer

Paleontologists (A paleontologist is a scientist who studies fossils and the evolution of life on Earth) discovered fish fossils in the arid deserts of western Egypt.

What does the fossil evidence most likely indicate about this area’s geologic past?

• The desert was once a vast ocean.

• A giant ocean wave carrying sea life crashed onto the desert.

• Mountains in the region once provided water from snowmelt.

• The area was moved from the ocean to the desert by plate tectonics.

I Do
Guided Notes

Notes

●Help you make connections
between topics

●Serves as quality review
material for after lesson

Relative Dating:

Determining
the order of
past events,
but NOT
exact dates.

The Law of Superposition

•In horizontal
layers of
sedimentary
rock, each layer
is older than
the layer above
it and younger
than the layer
below it.

Labelling

Label the picture.

Drag labels to their correct position on the image

oldest layer

newest layer

Relative Dating Fossils

Younger fossils will
be found in the top
layers of rock.

Older fossils will be
found in the bottom
layers of rock.

Faulting:

• The arrow shows where
a fault line
(earthquakes) moved
the rock layers.

The breaking of rock layers by transform fault
lines.

Folding:

The bending of rock layers due to
pressure.

Multiple Choice

Are fault lines considered new or old when it intrudes a layer of the Earth?

• Newer

• Older

Absolute Dating:
Finding the approximate age of a
rock using the radioactive atoms
inside them.

Radioactive Dating

Radioactive dating is measuring the age of
the radioactive material inside of an object.

•Certain elements decay (break down) at certain
rates. (Ex. Carbon 14, Uranium)

•Scientists know how long certain atoms take to
decay.

•They compare the amount of atoms left to the
beginning amount to calculate its age.

Dating Fossils

Absolute dating methods, sometimes
called numerical dating, to give rocks an
actual date, or date range, in number of
years. For example, numerical dating tells
us the age of the Rock A in X numbers of
years.

Relative dating, compare how old
something is in comparison to something
else. For example, relative dating tells us
the age of Rock A compared to Rock B.

Earth’s Age

•Using radioactive dating,
scientists have identified rock as
old as 4.28 billion years old.

•With this evidence and more, the
approximate age of the Earth has
been calculated as 4.5 billion
years old.

Earth’s Evolution
The Earth’s surface has been slowly but
constantly changing in all of that time.

Earth used to be covered by a
supercontinent named Pangaea.

Evidence: Rock with the same composition
and the same age can be found on different
continents today.

WE DO
Collaborative
Activity

● Complete shared tasks in a

paired or group.

Labelling

Label the layers that formed from oldest to newest.

Example: The letter c is the first layer formed so it would be labeled as number 1.

Drag labels to their correct position on the image

1 (Oldest)

4

3

2

5 (Newest)

Labelling

Label the layers that formed from oldest to newest.

Drag labels to their correct position on the image

3

1 (Oldest)

2

4

5 (Newest)

Labelling

Label the layers that formed from oldest to newest.

Drag labels to their correct position on the image

4

5 (Newest)

1 (Oldest)

2

3

Multiple Choice

 In which example could you see faulted rock layers? _______________ 

• Example 1

• Example 2

• Example 3

Open Ended

What information would you need in order to determine the absolute data of a rock sample?

Open Ended

Occasionally, geologists will find fish fossils in the middle of the desert in Arizona. What best explains this discovery?

Video Response

Record a video of yourself and explain what methods allow scientists to tell the age of rocks and what does this tell us about the Earth’s history?

Open Video Recorder

Poll

For this lesson, rate your understanding of the material from 1-4.

• Level 1: I didn't understand the lesson

• Level 2: I can understand a little.

• Level 3: I worked with no help.

• Level 4: I can teach others.