CWU Radioactive Dating Technique to Estimate Age of Materials Discussion

Go to the PhET lab simulation on Radioactive Dating and complete the following exercise. You must download this simulation from the Canvas assignment.s

https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/legacy/radioactive-dating-game

1. Explore Radioactive Dating Game. Try all the tabs to figure out why there is more than one element used to estimate how old things might be.

2. What elements’ isotopes are used to estimate how old something is? Why do scientists use more than one type? (Be specific, it is not just to get repeated results)

3. Pretend you are a scientist and have a tool like the one on Dating Game tab:

a. How do you decide which to use: Carbon-14 or Uranium-238?

b. How does the percentage help you estimate the age?

c. If you can’t get a reading on one object like the fish fossil, what else can you try? Determine the approximate age of the fish fossil and explain what you did to estimate the fossil age.

4. If you were a forensic scientist and found a dead buried body, could you use one of the isotopes in the simulation to figure out how long ago the person died? Explain.

5. What type of reaction do Carbon -14 and Uranium- 238 undergo? Explain how you figured this out and write the reaction for each.

After completing this module, please list the following details in this reflection:

• Three things that you have learned from this lesson or from this text.
• Two questions that you still have.
• One aspect of class or the text that you enjoyed.