Assignment: The Virtual Dating Lab
You are probably wondering...how do scientists know these years? Where do these numbers come from? Well, the ages are obtained from rock samples that have been dated radiometrically, which means using the natural radioactive decay of specific elements to determine the age of the sample. This Virtual Dating Laboratory exercise will help you to understand how radiometric dating techniques work.
Directions
Note: You must complete this online exercise in one sitting – meaning, this is not a module that you can start and come back to. Please leave yourself at least a half hour to complete this lab.
- Select the first exercise “Virtual Dating Isochron for rocks and minerals.”
- Carefully go through each page of the exercise--read the material and answer the questions.
- At the end of the exercise, you will be asked to enter your name (please use your full name, no nicknames) and your school (please enter your Penn State campus location). The next Web page on that site will bring you to a blue box that has the "certificate."
- Right-click in the blue box. A menu will pop up with the option “Save Picture as…” Select this option. Name the file with your LAST NAME (such as GUERTIN). Leave the file type at Bitmap (.*bmp).
- Submit your file by uploading it into the "Lesson 2 - Virtual Dating Lab" dropbox, located in our Dropboxes; folder under the Lessons tab in ANGEL.
- After submitting your certificate in the dropbox, go to the Lesson 02 Discussion Forum to post a response to the question presented.
How this will be graded
This assignment (certificate completion plus Discussion Forum) is recorded as one Discussion Forum grade. You need to complete both to receive credit.
