Magnets, Metal and Fields
Please see the guide to these activities and experiments in the section below the links.
Is it magnetic? What exactly does a magnet attract? An introduction. Can magnetism pass through a ceramic coffee cup?
Can anything stop magnetism? Will some materials let a magnetic field pass through?
Are two magnets twice as strong as one? Students pick up paperclips to answer the question.
Students use iron filings to see patterns in the magnetic field.
Which magnet is strongest? Students measure to rate and rank the magnets available in your classroom.
Guide to activities and experiments with magnets
Consider the number sense of the students you have. Set the number of clips according to what your class is doing now.
If you feel they need more work in numbers 0 - 20, use magnets that are smaller and only pick up about 25 clips for these following experiments. If your class is working on numbers 0 - 120, use a stronger magnet or combine them to be able to lift more than 100 clips. Use smaller paper clips for higher numbers. Students should be good at counting by tens and ones and determining greater than or less than.
If their number sense is more than 200, grams are important. Most paperclips are about a gram and the number on the scale will be close to the real count of the clips. In third and fourth grade classes I have brought welder’s magnets and we never counted the clips. We measured the clips with a digital kitchen scale in grams. The count of clips and grams is usually close and mostly true up to 1000. So a quantity twice as big really looks twice as big, and a small difference might change our estimate of how many there really are, if we measure in grams.
If using a digital kitchen scale in grams: Always remind the students we’re measuring how much iron the magnet can pick up. We’re not counting every clip. We’re writing down the number of grams, not clips.
Earlier number sense version-
If currently teaching tens and ones, up to 120, use hand counting. Show them how to make 10 trains by hooking 10 clips and laying them straight on the table. Hang a foot or two of horizontal, temporary string to hang the trains if you have larger numbers. Each day or in stations/centers, they can repeat the trials and count by tens and ones without making the chains all over again. Replication means repeating a test. Keep all the recordings in the journal. Students should write the date on every page. This is the true value of the journal. It either proves change over time, or it proves patterns that can be predicted. Once a month or so, the class flips back and reads earlier pages. They read what they wrote and are motivated to talk about it. Harness that power.