National Science Education Standards |
Page 3 |
Life Science
Population sand ecosystems
Regulation and Behavior
The interdependence of organisms
Earth Science
Energy in the Earth system
Earth’s history
Purpose
- To use foraminifera (pasta-seeds) contained in deep sea sediments (sand) to determine paleo temperature changes.
- To practice relative and absolute dating techniques.
Materials
Per student group:
- 4” x 25” cardboard tube (can substitute PVC tube though harder to cut) -per 2 groups of students.
- Sand or dirt to act as deep sea sediment.
- Five small buckets or large bowls for mixing dry pasta/beans/seeds (per class size).
- Tweezers or chop sticks to be used as sediment extraction instruments.
- Paper bowl (one per student pair). Punch holes in bottom of bowl. This will be used to separate forams from sand.
- Two types of opposite coiling pasta (Fusilli #29 coil left and Fusilli Bucati #9 coil right), lentils, split peas, sesame seeds. (Note: Formas coil but pasta coil. In order to be scientifically correct both words are used, coiling when referring to natural formas and coilling when referring to pasta and pasta formas. Students may or may not be confused by this issue but both refer to similar morphologic structures and can be used interchangeably depending on your age group).
- Volcanic dust (?). See instructions in extension section for use of “volcanic dust” if absolute age dates are being incorporated.
Time Frame
This exercise could be set-up the night before class. Set-up takes at least 30 minutes depending on number of kits needed – but can be reused each year. Class time takes at least one 45 min class period and can then extended a second day to completely analyze all the data.
