Prince George's Community College: Reading the Rock Record [Pdf]

This is an in-depth activity where students create a rock layer formation using different colors of playdough and investigate the types of folds and rock formations that might occur. They take core samples through anticlines and synclines and examine and record what they find. They make predictions about what core samples might look like in real rock formations and learn about sedimentary and igneous rock layers and how relative aging of rock layers is determined. Through it all, they build their vocabulary of geological terms and learn principles of geology.