In sixth grade social studies, our first chapter is about studying the distant past. One topic that we discuss is how archaeologists determine the ages of fossils and other prehistoric objects. One dating method is called carbon dating. In carbon dating, we learned that all living things absorb a kind of carbon called carbon-14. When organisms die, they stop absorbing this type of carbon. After death, the remaining carbon-14 starts to decay or disappear. This allows scientists to measure how much carbon-14 remains in a fossil and they use this measurement to determine how long it has been since the living thing died. We tried an experiment with a box, pennies and paperclips to see how carbon dating works! Students recorded their findings and we compared results!
