Evangelical Christian Academy
Instructional Guide: Course Outline
Department: Science
Course Title: Earth Science
Course Length: 2 semesters
Unit #3: Geology
Minerals and Ores, Rocks and Fossils
Chapter 14, 15
Unit Length: 37-39 days
Essential Question:
How do minerals and different rock types shape the world around us?
Why does the Earth look the way it does?
How has the Earth changed since the Creation?
Instructional Objectives:
Student will be able to:
 Compare and contrast both the beauty and the function of minerals.
 Classify substances as a mineral vs non-mineral
 Distinguish between native minerals and compound minerals
 Investigate the physical properties that are common to all minerals using these physical
properties to identify minerals
 Investigate several properties that are unique to minerals using these physical properties
to identify minerals
 Investigate several native minerals
 Describe methods for obtaining native minerals from their ores
 Research useful properties and uses of native minerals and compound minerals
 Discuss the providence of God in the types of rocks that exist in nature
 Distinguish between minerals and rocks
 Classify the types of rocks according to their modes of origin
 Describe the uniformitarian concept of the rock cycle
 Discuss the limitation to the uniformitarian concept of the rock cycle
 Categorize samples of sedimentary rock as clastic or non-clastic
 Describe the characteristics of a fossil and index fossils
 Discuss how fossils and extinct species, especially dinosaurs, fit into the biblical view of
the earth’s history
 Compare and contrast fossil “evidences” of biological evolution with Biblical
Creationism
 Relate the geologic column to the geologic time scale
 Distinguish magma from lava
 Compare and contrast intrusive and extrusive igneous formations
 Categorize samples of igneous rock as extrusive or intrusive
 Describe the processes that produced local and regional metamorphism
 Categorize samples of metamorphic rock as foliated or nonfoliated
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Instructional Resources:
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ActivBoard
Student instructional manual
Bible
Minerals and rocks
Streak plate/magnifying lens/spring balances/beaker/magnets/compass/acid/black light
Ruler
Beaker
Trilobites and other fossils
Biblical Integration:
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Investigate minerals in the Bible Revelation 21:2-3, 18; gold
Discuss whether man should mine minerals Job 28 Exodus 35:22, Exodus 39:6-13
Discuss the precious stones as gifts for the tabernacle, Aaron’s holy garments was
adorned with precious stones
Discuss the significance of not cutting stones for altars Exodus 20:25
Discuss foundations, cornerstones and how this relates to Christ as the foundation for
our faith--Spiritually--I Corinthians 3:11
Psalm 73:17 -- Show how the effect of clay is making things slippery. Discuss the
correlation to the effects of sin.
Correlate the formation of clastics with Jeremiah 23:29 --being broken with a hammer
Mark 9:50 – discuss the formation of salt near the Dead Sea and how this correlates with
losing salty flavor
Psalm 19:14 --Discuss how God can be my rock
Matthew 7:24-25 Discuss the word of God and being built upon the rock
Day 6 of Creation—Discuss the creation of Dinosaurs
Assessments:
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Class participation/discussion (grammar, logic, and introductory rhetoric)
Quizzes
Journal entries (grammar, logic)
Homework (review to develop understanding and mastery)
Test
Evaluation of lab investigations and accompanying questions on labs
Student Activities:
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Lab—mineral tests (skill)
Lab—rock investigation
Lab--trilobite
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Fallacies of the Geological Scale
The geological time scale is a speculative framework of the earth’s history. It uses relative dating
rather than absolute dating. If evolution had happened, it would have to have happened
continuously.
However, geologist have noticed that new fossil organisms seem to appear in the geological
column fully
formed in stages. Each of these stages is given a name and assigned a period of time on the
geological
time scale. The largest units of these time periods are called eras, the next smaller, periods, and
the
next, epochs. Evolutionists claim that these time units can be related to the appearance and
extinction
of fossil organisms in the earth’s rock layers.
An evolutionary geologist believes that representative plants and animals living in each age were
buried in sediment by rivers or streams, local floods, dust storms, mudslides, or wave action.
In time this sediment turned to rock. The process is said to have been repeated many times,
producing layer upon layer of rock, with each new layer representing a time period more recent
than the one beneath it (the principle of "superposition"). The evolutionary geologist believes he
can tell how old a fossil is by its vertical location with respect in other fossils. But his dating
method
is full of circular reasoning. He dates rocks by the fossils found in them and dates fossils by the
same rocks. In addition, the method is flawed by the basic assumption of evolution. Living things
were rapidly created; they did not slowly evolve. Further, there is good reason to believe that
most
of the fossils were laid down in a year-long period of great catastrophic activity during the
Genesis
Flood, not over hundreds of millions of years of more gentle activity, as is generally claimed.
1. What determines the divisions of eras and periods on the geologic time scale?
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2. Which of the eras on the geologic time scale is divided into both periods and epochs?
3. Why do geologists study fossils?
4. What factors in the environment or surroundings would cause a species to change?
5. What are index fossils? Give an example of an index fossil
6. How might geologic events, such as the movement of tectonic plates, affect the
environment in which species live?
7. Were corals ever a dominant life form with few other organisms in existence as indicated
on the geologic time scale?
8. In what epoch, period, and era do you live?
Procedure
1. In each column of the table on page SA210 draw a vertical line through the portion of the
geological time scale affected by each numbered item described below. (Note: Look at the first
column, and then plot the other seven items in the same manner.)
2. Place arrowheads at the ends of the line and make short horizontal lines at the arrowheads to
mark the limits of the periods.
3. On each vertical line, place a label describing the evidence. For example, the label for Column
1
is "Iron Pot in Coal."
Column 1. An iron pot was found embedded in coal. The coal was determined to be middle
Pennsylvania, so one end of the line is placed in the middle of the Pennsylvanian time period.
The iron
must actually have been made in very recent times; so the other end of the line is located on the
dashed
line near the top of table.
Column 2. Gymnosperm pollen is found in the Grand Canyon in the lowest strata (Precambrian).
Yet
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evolutionist claim that such plants did not evolve until the Permian. Draw your line from the top
of the
Precambrian to the middle of the Permian. Label the line “Pollen in Grand Canyon.”
Column 3. Fossil wood was found embedded in Precambrian rock in northern Quebec, Canada.
Two
radiocarbon tests on samples of the wood gave results about four thousand years. Assuming that
the
radiocarbon results are correct, draw your line from the top of the Precambrian to the dashed line
on at
the top of the table. Label it “Fossil Wood in Precambrian.”
Column 4. A baked clay figure 4 cm long was bought up from the depths of 92 m by a team of
workers
drilling for water at Nampa, Idaho. The level at which it was found was determined to be early
Pliocene.
Draw your line from the lowest part of Pliocene to the dashed line at the top of the table. Label it
“Nampa Image.”
Column 5. Cambrian Mississippian layers are found to alternate back and forth (two complete
cycles) in
one part of the north rim of Grand Canyon. Since time cannot alternate back and forth, the
portion of
the geologic time table encompassed by the Cambrian and Mississippian periods is invalidated
by this
discovery. Draw your line from the middle of the Cambrian to the middle of the Mississippian
and label
it “Alternating Layers.”
Column 6. Chief Mountain in Glacier National Park in Montana consists of Precambrian rock
overlying
Cretaceous rock. Since the fossils are out of their alleged developmental order, evolutionists
have
attempted to salvage their theory by claiming that overthrust rearranged rock that was originally
in its
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correct order. Yet none of the evidences of overthrusting are present. The only logical conclusion
is that
the rocks were deposited in the order in which they are now found, meaning that the alleged time
span
between the Precambrian and Cretaceous (about 500 million years) never existed. Draw your line
from
the top of the Precambrian to the top of the Cretaceous and label it “Chief Mountain.”
Column 7. Your teacher may provide other examples.
Observations
1. The vertical line drawn through a geologic time unit has the effect of canceling it. Look at the
overall effect of the six contradictions. How much of the fossil-bearing geologic time scale
survived?
2. List the surviving parts of the table.
Summing Up
1. On what basis do evolutionists label rocks as “Cretaceous”, “Cambrian”, and so on?
2. Explain how circular reasoning enters into the dating of rocks and fossils.
3. What three different kinds of evidence were examined in this exercise?
4. Assuming that human artifact has been discovered embedded in sedimentary rock, and
scientists agree that the artifact appears to be genuine, how could this fact be explained
biblically?
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