Lay newspapers on a flat surface that gets direct sunlight.
Cut up thin slices of fruit and set them on the newspapers.
Leave the newspapers and fruit to sit in the natural sunlight for at least five hours. The fruit slices should be left on the newspaper for about 12 hours total. The purpose of this process is to allow the fruit to spoil a bit and begin to lose carbon on the newspaper. Students can then test the newspaper samples to simulate carbon-14 dating by analyzing the amount of carbon isotopes left on the paper by the fruit.
Set up a display at the front of your classroom. Make a mock crime scene with the newspapers and fruit simulating evidence. Talk to the students about how it is their job to test this evidence to find out how old the newspaper is as it could be a clue for solving the crime.
Have the students put on rubber gloves to simulate working in a lab and remove the fruit samples from the newspaper. Discard the fruit and outline the area where it was sitting on the newspaper.
Cut out the areas on the newspaper so the artifacts can be put under the microscope slide.
Help the students take turns looking at the newspaper pieces on the microscope slide to count the carbon isotopes left by the fruit. The number of isotopes is divided by 100 to determine to the natural logarithm function that is used in the carbon-14 dating formula in the next step.
Lead the students in the carbon-14 dating formula where "T" is the age of the fossil and "In" is the natural logarithm function. The "In" function is divided by -0.693. This number is then multiplied by by 5730 to determine the value of "T."