California State University, Northridge

• PHYSICS 100

• Student directions Radioactive Dating Game activity Learning Goals: Students will be able to: ● Identify isotopes that are commonly used to determine how old matter might be. ● Explain how radiometric dating works and why different elements are used for dating different objects. ● Use the percent of an isotope measured in an object to estimate its age. ● Identify types of nuclear reaction used for dating; include how elements change and balanced reaction. Directions: 1. Explore Radioactive Dating Games . Try all the tabs to figure out why there is more than one element used to estimate how old things might be. There is more than one element used to estimate how old things might be because every element has a different half-life. 2. What elements’ isotopes are used to estimate how old something is? Why do scientists use more than one type? (Be specific, it is not just to get repeated results) There are numerous elements used for radioactive dating and to estimate how old something is. There is Carbon-14, Thorium, Uranium, Polonium, and Actinium. It all depends on what type of substance it is.