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Handout
Nobel Media AB

The Nobel Prize: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1960

For Students 9th - 10th
At this site read about Willard Frank Libby (1908-1980 CE), the scientist and mathematician who discovered the carbon dating methods used by archaologists and geologists. This website includes the Nobel Prize "Presentation Speech," as...
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Website
Other

The Un Museum: Radiocarbon Dating

For Students 9th - 10th
How old is an object? Willard Libby found that the amount of carbon-14 decay found in an animal or plant could be used as a gauge of how long it had been dead.
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Handout
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mit: Inventor of the Week: Willard Libby Carbon Dating

For Students 6th - 8th
Use this site to learn about radiocarbon dating and the scientist who discovered it, Willard Libby (1908-1980 CE).
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Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Illustrative Mathematics: F Le Carbon 14 Dating in Practice Ii

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
This problem introduces Carbon 14 dating which is used by scientists to date certain organic material. This version is based on the ratio of Carbon 14 to Carbon 12, which decreases at a constant exponential rate after an organism dies....
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Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Illustrative Mathematics: F Le Carbon 14 Dating, Variation 2

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
In this task on exponential decay, students calculate what the amount of Carbon 14 left in a preserved plant will be as time passes and when one microgram will be all that is left. Aligns with F-LE.A.1.c.
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Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Illustrative Mathematics: F Le Carbon 14 Dating in Practice I

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
In this task, students learn about exponential decay by examining the amount of Carbon-14 left in a preserved plant with the passage of time after the plant has died. This provides a simple introduction to Carbon-14 dating but the actual...
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Lesson Plan
Illustrative Mathematics

Illustrative Mathematics: F Le Carbon 14 Dating

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
The task requires the student to use logarithms to solve an exponential equation in the realistic context of carbon dating. Aligns with F-LE.A.4.
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Article
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Mcat: Physical Processes: Atomic Nucleus: Decay Graphs and Half Lives Article

For Students 9th - 10th
Explains how scientists can tell when radiation has been leaked, how to read a decay graph, what we mean by a half-life, and what carbon dating is.