Lab Safety
You should wear these to protect your eyes whenever you are working with chemicals, rocks, or tools.
What are safety goggles?
According to the rules of rock layers, this is where you will almost always find the oldest layer of rock.
What is at the bottom?
If a scientist finds a fossil of a shark tooth in a desert rock layer, it is evidence that the desert used to be covered by this.
What is an ocean (or water)?
This deep, steep-walled valley is formed over millions of years as a river slowly carves its way through layers of rock.
What is a canyon?
If you are looking at a cliff with four flat rock layers, this is the layer number you would count to find the oldest piece of Earth's history (counting from 1 at the top to 4 at the bottom).
What is Layer 4?
True or False: It is perfectly safe to taste or smell a rock or soil sample in the lab as long as it looks clean.
What is False?
According to the rules of rock layers, this is where you will find the newest, youngest layer of rock.
What is at the top?
If a rock layer contains fossils of palm tree leaves, it is evidence that the area's ancient weather was very.
What is warm (or tropical)?
This slow process breaks down rocks into smaller pieces using wind, water, or ice.
What is weathering?
When a scientist uses clues in rock layers to say, "This dinosaur lived before this small mammal," they are using this type of time ordering rather than exact years.
What is relative time (or chronological order)?
If you have long hair, you should always do this before starting a science lab with moving parts or tools.
What is tie it back?
This type of rock is built layer by layer over millions of years from trapped pieces of sand, mud, and pebbles.
What is sedimentary rock?
These are the preserved remains or traces of ancient living things trapped inside sedimentary rock layers.
What are fossils?
This process happens when wind, water, or gravity moves pieces of weathered rock and soil from one place to another.
What is erosion?
Imagine a rock layer with ocean fossils is buried deeply beneath a layer with tree leaf fossils. This tells us the landscape changed from an ocean to this over millions of years.
What is dry land (or a forest/continent)?
This is what you should always do right after finishing a science activity and cleaning up your work area.
What is wash your hands?
Scientists look for these repeating arrangements in rock formations across a landscape to prove how the area used to look.
What are patterns?
If a layer containing plant fossils is found directly under a layer containing marine shell fossils, it means the area changed from land to this.
What is ocean (or water)?
This sudden, powerful Earth force can crack, shift, and tilt flat rock layers, changing the look of a landscape instantly.
What is an earthquake?
If an earthquake causes flat rock layers to crack and slide out of line, scientists know the earthquake happened after the rock layers were formed because of this rule of patterns.
What is the crack is younger than the rock layers (or the layers had to be there first)?
Before you begin any science activity, you must wait for this person to give you permission and instructions.
What is the teacher?
Rock layers are usually formed in this direction because gravity pulls the sediment flat against the ground.
What is horizontally (or flat/straight)?
These types of fossils, like footprints, nests, or burrows, show how an ancient animal lived and moved, rather than what its body looked like.
What are trace fossils?
This is the term for the dropped-off piles of sand and mud that build up at the mouth of a river, creating new land layers over time.
What is deposition?
A scientist claims that a certain valley used to be a rushing river millions of years ago. To support this explanation, they should look for patterns of rounded, water-worn pebbles trapped in this specific type of rock layer.
What is sedimentary rock?