Are you in your unit about the age of fossils and rocks? I’m going to be completely transparent here. This is NOT my favorite post to write. I have some questions about some of the dating methods, mostly absolute dating methods, but it’s still a neat topic to teach.
For middle school, teaching the basics of relative and absolute dating are all that they need. You can discuss some discrepancies in these methods, and just teach students to think on their own. I can be skeptical when it comes to a lot of things, but you have to be sometimes!
Here are some articles for you to do your own research!
- Inaccuracies in Radiocarbon Dating
- How Reliable Are Dates for Human Fossils?
- Carbon-14 Dating – Understanding the Basics
So, although I’m skeptical about the methods, this doesn’t mean that I’m not interested. It’s very fascinating, and I’m new at learning all of the things surrounding this.
Because of this passion to learn more, I’m here to share how you can bring the WOW Factor to your science classroom when teaching this, sometimes controversial, topic!
In this post, I share how you can get your students to WONDER and to become internally motivated to learn (just like me!). Then, I share some interactive lessons to help students learn more about relative and absolute dating. Finally, I share some WIDEN activities to help students extend their knowledge on this topic.
Let’s get started!

WONDER Strategies to Introduce Methods of Dating
So, although it’s not my favorite topic to write about, the age of fossils and rocks is an interesting topic for me to learn about. It’s so confusing, controversial, and interesting, especially as a Christian!
However, your students may not share this passion, so you have to hype them up a bit! Here are some ideas.
How Do They Know? – Post-It Discussion
This is a great way to pre-assess students on what they already know about the age of fossils and rocks. At the same time, it’s a great way to get students critical-thinking-wheels going!
So, what do you do?
- Give each student one Post-it note.
- Ask them the question: “How do scientists know the age of fossils and rocks that they find in and on the Earth?”. Tell them to write their answer on their Post-it note.
- Once students have written their answer, have them bring their answer and post it on a designated spot in the room, such as a white board or wall in the front of the room.
- You (or a student volunteer) can read over the answers, share some with the class, and determine if there are any patterns.
- Discuss the answers!
This is a great way to see what students already know and to get them to think about how scientists work to determine how old fossils and rocks are, and ultimately, how old they think the Earth is. It will get them thinking about the methods to determine the age of fossils and rocks.

Play Jenga
Yes! This is a great WONDER strategy to hook students in to learning about relative dating.
- First, have your students build the Jenga tower.
- Second, ask them which layers were laid down first. They will say the bottom, and then bam, you have just taught the Law of Superposition!
- You can just let them play the regular game after this, or you could extend this WONDER activity. You can have students add some stickers to the blocks to represent fossils (including index fossils).
- You can have them create a “geological disturbance” by pulling out a block and replacing it with another. You also can have them remove parts of the top layers, representing erosion.
- You can have them predict what could happen on the “real Earth” and try to mimic this. Set expectations though. IYKYK!
There are a lot of options with this!
Radioactive Dating Game
Before learning more about absolute dating, you can have students explore this radioactive dating game by PhET. To understand why it’s used to date rocks and fossils, in addition to the inaccuracies some scientists claim, they have to understand the basic process.
It’s a lot to take in, but when you are just introducing the topic, just give students a chance to explore!
You can ask them guiding questions such as:
- What happens to the carbon and uranium over time?
- Do you notice any pattern in how the materials change?
- What does decay mean?
- What do you think a half-life is?
- What do you think happens when all of the original materials have decayed?
- What would happen if the decay rate was faster or slower?
You can base your questions on what your students may already know.
The Ages of Rocks and Fossils Interactive Lessons
Interactive lessons are a great way to teach content, as well as review! They use the 7 steps to help students retain information. For example, one of the greatest things about these lessons is that they segment the content into “bite-size” pieces with embedded activities to help students process the information.
If you teach students too much information at one time, they end up not learning anything at all. This is why these lessons can be so effective.

The age of fossils and rocks can be determined by relative dating and absolute dating.
Age of Rocks and Fossils – Relative AND Absolute Dating
In this Age of Rocks and Fossils Interactive Lesson, students will learn all about geologists, the two types of geologic dating (relative and absolute), the Law of Superposition, radioactive dating, and so much more!
Some of the embedded activities include a Venn diagram, KWL, drag-and-drop questions, and more!
Age of Rocks and Fossils – Relative Dating ONLY
If you are looking for a lesson just about relative dating, this is the one. It covers the Law of Superposition, Principle of Original Horizontality, Principle of Cross-Cutting Relationships, Principle of Inclusions, and more!
The embedded activities include an anticipation guide, exploring outside resources, vocabulary matching, and more!
Age of Fossils and Rock WIDEN Activities
As mentioned earlier, this topic is A LOT to take in. There are arguments that even scientists make about this. Just teaching the basics to middle school students is all they need right now! However, you can always extend their knowledge a bit and/or give them the opportunity to practice what they’ve learned.
Here are some ways to WIDEN their knowledge.
Who Dunit?
The USGS put out this activity to help students understand the Law of Superposition.
It’s a cute way to get students thinking about this law if they don’t quite understand it yet.
I’ll let the activity explain it to you!
Layers of Time Fossil Game
I thought that this was also a good activity to see what students have learned!
First, have students to watch the video to learn important facts that will help them in the game.
The goal is to put the layers in order based on the fossils.
There are 3 levels. You can have students choose a level and play, or you can have them start with easy and work their way up!
Geologic Time Scale
If you haven’t covered the Geologic Time Scale yet, now would be a good time to WIDEN students’ knowledge on this topic!
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