Analyzing Artefacts

Grade 5 is wrapping up their investigation into ancient civilisations and have been looking into how evidence is collected, analysed and validated.

As part of this investigation, we took a trip to the Tokyo National Museum to view artefacts from various places around Asia.  Students were asked to choose 3 artefacts to analyse in more detail. Students speculated on the artefacts' origin and evolution, and its use in everyday life. Student's used what they previously knew about the civilisations to support their claims.

After visiting the museum and seeing lots of old artefacts, students were posed the question,
"How do scientists date artefacts?"

Student research focused on radiometric dating. As a class we watched a short a clip from the PBS documentary Hunting The Elements.
Through this, students learned the basics of Carbon Dating and saw a scientist at work using this method to date trees and study periods of drought.

Students then spent time investigating this process through a classroom simulation. After creating a graph to plot the half-life of Carbon-14, students used M&Ms to simulate the decay of Carbon-14 atoms.  In this activity, an M&M with the M showing represents a Carbon-14 atom. After shaking up the sample and pouring them onto a plate, a portion of the M&Ms (Carbon-14) will decay and no longer show the M. Students used this information to calculate the date of the sample.

As a next step, another simulation was conducted. This time, students were asked to date an "Ancient Egyptian Pancake."  Each pancake had two different fillings, one acting as the Carbon-14 atoms and another, acting as Nitrogen. Once students carefully separated the two types of atoms they were able to use the knowledge and skills from the previous activity to accurately date their sample.

Separating the Carbon and Nitrogen atoms. Aka corn and raisins.