What is a fossil?

A fossil is the preserved remains of any living thing. These remains can be carbonized, petrified, cast and mold, etc. It can be any type of remain from a living thing such as poop, hair, tracks, and much more.

Our 50/50 recipe consisted of 40 mL of sand, 40 mL of plaster, and 20 mL of water. The 75% sand/ 25% plaster consisted of 60 mL of sand, 20 mL of plaster, and 20 mL of water. Lastly, our 75% plaster/ 25% sand consisted of 60 mL of plaster, 20 mL of sand, and 20 mL of water.

Before we started, we predicted that the 75% plaster/ 25% sand mixture would produce the best fossil. After seeing the mixtures, we predict that the 50/50 mixture will produce the best fossil. We also think that we would have had better results if we had done our water to plaster and sand ratio differently. Hindsight, we would have done our 50/50 mixture as 20 mL of sand, 20 mL of plaster, and 20 mL of water. We felt as though more water to our mixture would have produced better results.

The 75% sand mixture was our least successful of the three trails. The mixture was extremely grainy and fell apart without out much work. There was no mold present in the hardened mixture. 

The 75% plaster mixture took a little bit more work to get the fossil out. It took about two minutes to extract with hammer and a chisel. There was a mold left in the hardened mixture. 

The 50% mixture was fairly easy to extracted the shell. It took about a minute with the chisel and hammer before the shells came loose. The shells left a pretty good mold. 

Hindsight, we would have not put the shells more in the middle of the liquid mixture. We also would have made sure the shells were the right way to leave a cool mold.