Learning Outcomes for Test #16
Unit 3, lesson 5
Name: ______________________________
Test date: ___________________________
Vocabulary: Students need to learn and understand the meaning of the following vocabulary words AND be able to
apply them to a variety of situations. KNOW THESE DEFINTIONS BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS!!!!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
fossil – any remains or imprints of living things from the past
fossil fuel- a fuel formed from the decay of ancient forms of life
relative age – the age of one rock or fossil as compared to another
absolute age –a rock’s age in years
era – long stretches of time used to measure earth’s geological history
nonrenewable resource –a resource that cannot be replaced within a short period of time or at all
renewable resource –a resource that can be replanted or replaced naturally in a short period of time
inexhaustible resource – resources that have virtually no end to the supply – ex. Energy from wind or the
Sun
Students will learn in class about the following topics. Be prepared to be assessed on them.
1. Almost all fossils are found in sedimentary rock.
2. ***What do the formation of fossils and the formation of fossil fuels have in common?
The objects that form fossils and those that form fossil fuels are buried under sediment. Over
millions of years, the buried object either forms a fossil or a fossil fuel.
3. How Fossil Fuels are Formed:
Coal: 1. Dead organisms in a swamp form peat. 2. Peat is covered with layers of sediment.
3. Pressure turns peat into coal.
Oil and Gas- 1. Dead organisms fall to the ocean floor. 2. The dead organisms are buried in
sediment. 3. Pressure forms oil and gas.
4. As the peat hardened when it was buried under sediment, it turned into a sedimentary rock called bitumous
coal, or soft coal. As it was buried even deeper, this coal was changed into a metamorphic rock called anthracite,
or hard coal.
5. Bitumous coal, anthracite, oil, and natural gas are examples of fossil fuels.
6. Scientists can infer that anywhere coal, oil, or natural gas is found that organisms lived there at one time.
7. Fossils can provide information about whether an organism is older or younger than other organisms. In general,
each layer of rock is older than the layer above it and younger than the layer below it. This is called the law of
superposition.
8. ** What method might you use to find the relative and absolute age of a fossil? For the relative age, use the law
of superposition and for the absolute age, use the half-life of the rock around the fossil to infer the age of the
fossil itself.
9. The amount of time it takes for the amount of an element to be cut in half is called the element’s half-life.
10. If the half- life of an element is 2 million years, how long will it take for one-eighth of a sample of the element to
remain? 6 million years (half- 2 million years, ¼ - 4 million years, 1/8 – 6 million years)
11. Fossil fuels formed hundreds of millions of years ago during the Carboniferous Period. During this time, the
land was covered with swamps filled with large leafy plants. Over millions of years, these plants were buried and
turned into fossil fuels.
12. ***Explain what nonrenewable resources are and give some examples. Some nonrenewable resources take
thousands or millions of years to form. Because they take so long to form, they cannot be replenished in a
short amount of time. They are nonrenewable resources because they are used up faster than they are made.
Some examples of nonrenewable resources are coal, natural gas, gasoline, minerals, and metals.
13. When fossil fuels are burned, they release energy from the sunlight that was stored in the dead plants and in
the animals that ate them.
14. Geological Eras: PreCambrian
Paleozoic (age of ancient life):
*Cambrian
*Ordovician
*Silurian
*Devonian
*Carboniferous
*Permian
Mesozoic (age of dominant reptiles)
*Triassic
*Jurassic
*Cretaceous
Cenozoic (age of dominant mammals)
* Tertiary
* Quaternary
. Most of the electricity that people use is made in power plants.
16. ** If nonrenewable resources ran out, how would this affect people? People would have to find different
sources of energy for heating, powering cars, and many other things.
17. **What might be an alternate energy source if fossil fuels were not available for electricity?
Running water or winds might be an energy source for electricity.
18. Living renewable resources include things such as fish and forests. They must be treated with care. Wind, water
power, and sunlight are considered nonliving renewable energy sources.
19. Any source of energy other than fossil fuels is called an alternative energy source. These include wind,
moving water, and solar energy. Some of these, such as energy from the wind or the Sun are inexhaustible
resources – there is virtually no end to the supply.
20. Heat produced inside Earth, or geothermal energy, causes geysers and hot springs. Steam from hot springs can
be piped to machines that spin generators and the hot water can be piped into homes and buildings to heat
them.
21. What do wind, running water, geothermal energy, and nuclear energy have in common when used as energy
sources? They can all move parts of an electrical generator.
22. Nuclear energy is created by changes in the center of certain atoms.
23. Biomass is made of materials from living things. Wood, animal waste, and plant materials, such as
cornstalks that are leftover parts of crops, are biomass. Biomass is the energy source used when grain alcohol is
burned in a car.
24. KNOW SOME GUIDELINES FOR ENERGY CONSERVATION – P. 140 IN TEXT