Sixty five million years ago, a 10 km meteorite crashed into what is now Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, creating a 177 km crater and causing mass extinctions across the globe. There are two kits focused on this event that challenge students to look at the evidence to make inferences about the past.

General Introduction Cretaceous Impact Kit:

•     Introduce the JOIDES Resolution research vessel and scientific ocean drilling;
•     Demonstrate how cores and sediment records drilled from the ocean floor can be used to make  inferences about past events;
•     Present different careers associated with conducting science on the ship.

Using the Cretaceous Impact Event to Teach Science Process

• Challenges students to make core observations and generate questions to obtain information that helps them make inferences about past events.
• Introduces students to the Science Flow chart to reflect upon the aspects of science the engaged in.

Click here for Related Resources and Background Information.

Next Generation Science Standards: Cross Cutting Concepts:

• Patterns
• Cause and effect
• Scale, proportion, quantity
• System and system models
• Stability and change

Next Generation Science Standards: Science and Engineering Practices:

• Asking questions and defining problems
• Analyzing and interpreting data
• Constructing explanations and designing solutions
• Engaging in argument from evidence

Next Generation Science Standards: Core Ideas:

• ESS1. C The history of the planet Earth
• ESS2.A Earth materials and systems
• LS4.A Evidence of common ancestry and diversity