GS105 Objectives
Critical thinking and Geologic time
1) Understand what scientific inquiry is and what critical thinking is. Know how they’re related and how they’re different.
2) Understand the difference between a law, theory and hypothesis
3) Explain how science uses law, theories and hypothesis.
4) Know what the accepted current scientific age of the earth is.
5) Understand the difference between Catastrophism and Uniformitarianism.
6) Know what is meant by relative dating and understand the following principles:
a) Superposition d) Inclusions
b) Horizontality e) Faunal succession
c) Cross-cutting relationships f) unconformities
7) Know what a fossil is and be able to describe different preservation methods.
8) Why are fossils useful in geology?
9) What is correlation?
10) How were the above concepts used to create a geological time scale
11) Who was James Hutton
12) Be familiar with what the geologic time scale is and know the order of the eras.
13) Understand the basic structure of an atom and where each component is found.
14) Know what the atomic mass (A) is and atomic number (Z) is with regards to an atom and be able to calculate them.
15) Know what is meant by numerical age dating or absolute dating
16) Understand the concepts of isotopes, ½ lives, parent/daughters, radioactivity.
17) Know the difference between alpha decay, beta decay, gamma decay and electron capture and what happens in each. Be able to determine which process happened by looking at the mother daughter information.
18) Understand how ratios of parents and daughters are used to determine the age of a rock.
19) Understand the limitations to the different systems of isotopes—which is best used for what and why.
20) Understand how C14 age dating works—i.e. the chemical process behind it.