Apologia General Science Experiment 8.1 A Simulation of Using Index Fossils to Order Rock Layers

Apologia General Science Experiment 8.1 

A Simulation of Using Index Fossils to Order Rock Layers

This was a pretty easy experiment to do, though it took five minutes of parent prep before student could participate.  This chapter is focusing on the differences between Uniformitarianism (Bill Nye, non-Christian-type of scientist theory/ideology; the world is billions or trillions of years old.) and Catastrophism (that the Bible is accurate, the flood and other major events caused varying sedimentary layers; the world is fairly young--a few thousand years old.)

We needed 18 Index Cards, pencil/pen, and paper...I think it took us about fifteen minutes all together.

I drew stars on three cards, squares on three cards, triangle, circles, straight line, and "x's" on three cards.

 Then I made three stacks, arranging the cards in exactly the same way, and wrote down the order I had made the stacks.  Then I had to remove two cards from each stack and turn the stacks over to Dd to figure out what the order was originally.

Then she looked through the stack and figured out the sequence...which completed the experiment.  Then we discussed how the cards were acting like specific fossils in the strata, and how Uniformitarians use those specific fossils to generate the fossil record, and guess their timeline.

So, the Uniformitarianist believe the strata took milllions/billions of years to form.  Then you turn the page in our text, and it shows a person standing in front of a tall strata--this strata was formed in 5 hours from Mt. Saint Helens--showing that catastrophies do, in fact, made strata in less than 'millions of years.'

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