1. Daily Warm-Up Exercises
Day 37
What are index fossils?
Index fossils are the remains or traces of organisms that lived for only a short time, but in many places around the world.
Why are index fossils useful to geologists?
When geologists find an index fossil in a rock layer, they know it is about the same age as all other rock layers that contain the same index fossil.
What’s the difference between remains and traces?
Remains are physical parts or remnants, like shells, bones, leaves, and so forth.
Traces are preserved impressions the organism made on its environment, like footprints.
Daily Warm-Up Exercises
Daily Warm-Up Exercises 1

2. Use Index Fossils (Part 1, steps 10-12)
Investigation 7
Fossils and Time

3. Index Fossil Correlations
Turn to page 61 and cut out the profiles of Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park.
Place the two profiles on page 59 and attach them so the index fossils are aligned correctly.
Turn to page 63 and complete the index-fossil correlation questions.
Daily Warm-Up Exercises 3

4. Same at Grand Canyon & Zion
Kaibab and Z1 have the same index fossils

5. Same at Zion & Bryce Z7 and B5 have the same index fossils
Z2 and B1 also have the same index fossils

6. Same at Grand Canyon & Bryce
None

7. Compare Ages -- B3 vs. Supai
B3 is younger than B1
B1 is from early Triassic
Supai is from late Pennsylvania
Triassic is more recent than Pennsylvania
B3 is younger than Supai

8. Compare Ages -- B2 vs. Z1 B2 is younger than B1
B1 is from early Triassic
Z1 is from Permian
Triassic is more recent than Permian
B2 is younger than Z1

9. Environment for B9
Since coal forms from decayed plants, the environment must have had a lot of plants.
The sandstone means that sand was present. The area was probably swampy or on a floodplain.

10. Labels
Exercise 7.2
Exercise 7.2   Image comprehension focus: Labeling Goal: Maintaining one’s understanding of the role of different labels Module Images: Resources book p.41   Type of Activity: Student Activity Overview: This activity provides students an opportunity to apply their understanding of the role of labels in diagrams to an example related to the content of this investigation. Students will review both the role and function of naming and explanatory labels. Procedure: Direct the students to look at resources book p >>>next slide<<<

11. CaSE Book Student Resource Book, page 50
Ask the students to pick one of the fossils shown and identify the naming label and explanatory label for that fossil. In addition, the student should be able to explain what information each type of label provides for each drawing (naming is the name in italics; explanatory is the time the fossil originated from) >>>end of exercise<<<

12. Captions
Exercise 7.3
Exercise 7.3   Image comprehension focus: Captions   Goal: Maintain the idea of the role/importance of captions Module Images: Resources book p. 41 Index Fossil Key (with and without modification)   Type of Activity: Student Activity Overview: This activity should be conducted after the students have completed the index-fossil activity (Part 1, sections 5-7). This activity is designed to help the students build an understanding of the role and importance of captions. An understanding of the important role captions play in images and the fact that they should always be read, even if the viewer thinks he/she knows what the image is depicting, will aid students in developing their image comprehension skills. Procedure: Have the students turn to page 41 of the Resources book if they have not already done so. (image available on next slide) >>>next slide<<<

13. CaSE Book Student Resource Book, page 50
After they have completed the activity that uses this image, note that there is no caption on this image to help explain what it is depicting. If you didn’t know what an index fossil was, it would be hard to understand the image Ask the students, based on what they have learned about index fossils and the role of captions, to write a caption for the image Next, guide the students in sharing the captions that they wrote. This discussion should include differences and similarities among the captions [A model caption is: An index fossil can be used to determine the age of rock layers since it lived for a relatively short period of time and in many places. This Index Fossil Key indicates the name and part of the period in which each index fossil lived.]   >>>end of exercise<<<