Simulating geologic time

Fun, hands-on activity to engage middle school, and possibly high school earth science classes at a low cost with relatively high impact. Students investigate their own "geologic time scale"... See More

Fun, hands-on activity to engage middle school, and possibly high school earth science classes at a low cost with relatively high impact. Students investigate their own "geologic time scale" in a stack of newspapers. Students discover "fossils" within the stacks, while minimally destroying the "landscape" followed by developing a geologic time scale. I would try to expand on this exercise a bit to incorporate a little more geology while helping to cement the concept that not all areas have simultaneous deposition, and in fact, some may experience erosion. The authors suggested removing a couple days' worth of papers as evidence of discontinuity; I would suggest a relatively large area where newspapers are not stacked in a single pile, but any newpaper, if covered, is superimposed by a subsequent issue to illustrate the idea of facies changes. Different textures and colors might be added for marker layers. Perhaps different groups could be responsible for investigation of' different areas, and the data combined to illustrate the shifting sands of geologic time. I would also like to see more of an inquiry approach to discovering "what lies beneath." Most stratigraphers use borings to identify the substrate qualities as well as fossils to come up with a picture of geologic history. Coming in laterally is another option; another is disassembly of the pile. How do these methods relate to mining practices? The biggest problem that I see with the activity within the article is the challenge of finding the newspapers to build the stratigraphic column. Will we be looking for fossilized newspapers in the future, as we look for dinosaur bones today?

Geologic Time

I like the simple approach of this project - using stacks of dated newspapers and hidden fossils to teach about geologic time. I also like the inclusion of social studies as students work to... See More

I like the simple approach of this project - using stacks of dated newspapers and hidden fossils to teach about geologic time. I also like the inclusion of social studies as students work to petition their states about representative fossils. The materials are inexpensive or free and the implementation is very straight forward.