Build a timescale
In this activity, students develop a timescale for a person’s life. The techniques of relative and absolute dating are similar to those used in the construction of a geological timescale.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
understand how a timescale is constructed
understand the difference between relative and absolute dating
realise that timescale divisions are not of standard lengths like other scientific units of measurement
recognise stages of a person’s life.
New Zealand geological timescale
Dr James Crampton explains that all geologists need to know the age of the rocks they work with. At GNS Science, important research continues to make the New Zealand geological timescale more precise. This includes working out the detailed evolutionary sequences of fossils and the use of radiometric dating. Deep-sea rock cores provide information not available on land.
Point of interest: In this clip, you can see James ‘preparing out’ some fossil molluscs with a small drill and an optical microscope. He is revealing the fossils within the rock so they might be better identified and studied
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
introduction/background notes
what you need
what to do
discussion questions
extension ideas.
Related content
The construction of geological timescales involves relative and absolute dating, with the date range involved up to 4.6 billion years ago.
Explore the Age of the earth timeline to find out about developments in how geologists discover the ages of rocks and fossils.
Activity ideas
Help your students understand more about dating methods with these other activities:
Use the activity Which dating method? with your student to learn to recognise some of the different relative and absolute dating methods.
Using absolute dating methods uses the interactive Absolute dating methods and Absolute dating rock layers – quiz. Students learn about and then choose the best absolute dating method for each layer of rock in a cliff, based on material present in each rock.
Rock layers and relative dating – observe rocks layers located near Whanganui, watch an animation about how they were formed and use relative dating to work out the order in which the rocks were created in the interactive Relative rock layers.
