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| |  | SCI-LIT LINKS QUICKPLAN
MAGNETS ARE ATTRACTIVE!!!
(QuickPlan developed by Dr. Ken Mechling, Clarion, Pennsylvania)
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OVERVIEW: Children explore with magnets, predicting and investigating what is attracted to them and what is not, how they are used, their interaction with and relationship to compasses, and what magnetism passes through and what it doesn't pass through. The book, What Makes a Magnet?, is then read to help children conceptualize magnetism and consider further investigations.
BOOKLINK: What Makes a Magnet? by Franklyn M. Branley, Harper Collins Publishers, 1996. ISBN 0-06-445148-8
SCIENCE ACTIVITY LINK: Children explore with several different magnets, predicting and testing what objects are and are not attracted . They also investigate magnets interaction with each other, discovering polarity, attraction, and repulsion. They explore the effect of magnetism on compasses, make their own compasses, and investigate magnetism's passage through a variety of objects.
OBJECTIVE: Children will predict, investigate, and record the effects of magnets on a variety of objects, on other magnets, on compasses, and through space. They will describe the characteristics of magnets and how magnets are used in their lives.
SCIENCE PROCESSES AND CONTENT: Processes—predicting, observing, inferring, measuring, communicating, formulating and testing hypotheses, designing investigations, gathering and recording data, formulating models, and making operational definitions. Content—magnetism, attraction, repulsion, iron, interaction, compasses, magnetic fields, north pole, south pole, lodestone, and magnetite.
NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS: Unifying Concepts and Processes, (1) Science as Inquiry, (2) Physical Science, (4) Earth and Space Science, (5) Science and Technology, (7) History and Nature of Science
MATERIALS: Magnets (at least one per child), objects to be tested ( e.g. paper clips, pencils, pens, brass fasteners, nails, sponges, chalk), compasses, needles, cork, cups and water, coat hanger, string or thread, and book What Makes a Magnet?
PROCEDURE:
1. Invite the children to join you in an investigation. Tell them you are going to give them a magnet and ask them to predict objects around their desks and around the room that the magnet would stick to or would be attracted to the magnet. After exploring, have the children return to their seats, put the magnets down, and record the objects that they tested, noting those that were attracted to the magnet and those that weren't. Explain to the children that any object attracted to the magnet has iron in it. Magnets attract iron.
2. Discuss with the children their own experiences with magnets and how they are used in their lives. Examples may include refrigerator magnets, magnets on cabinets and doors to keep them closed, and others from their personal experiences.
3. Now have the children investigate the strength of magnets by predicting how many paper clips can be picked up by their magnet. If you have two different magnets, have them test each, recording their findings. To test the number of paper clips attracted, they may be laid end to end or the magnet may simply be brought close to a pile of paperclips to see how many are picked up. The numbers can be counted and recorded.
4. Ask the children to predict how the magnets will react to each other if two are brought together. Have the record their predictions, then investigate. Have them try bringing the magnets together in many different ways. They will discover that sometimes the magnets pull toward each other ('attract') and sometimes they push apart ('repel'). Magnets have poles, usually the ends, and one is the north pole and one is the south pole. In magnets, like poles (north-north and south-south) repel, and unlike poles (north-south) attract. If the poles are not marked on the magnet, children may not know which is north and which is south, but they will observe the attraction and repulsion.
5. Next introduce the children to a compass. Show them how a compass works, describing the north and south poles of the needle and how the compass needle is attracted to the north magnetic pole of the earth. This would be a good place to read portions of the book What Makes a Magnet? that describes compasses, the Earth's magnetic field, and lodestones and their use in early navigation. Now have the children bring their magnets near (not touching) the compass and observe what happens. Ask the children to infer what is happening. Explain that magnetism can travel through space and interact at a distance with the compass needle. The Earth acts like a giant magnet affecting the needles of compasses all over the world, causing them to point north.
6. If you wish, children can make their own compasses. Carefully using a needle or pin, test it to see if it acts like a magnet. Does it pick up any other iron or steel objects? Now stroke it gently in one direction only with one pole of the magnet. Stroke it 30 or so times. Again, test the needle or pin to determine if it picks up other iron or steel objects. If it does, it is a temporary magnet. Its magnetism will last for only hours or days.
7. You may wish to have children investigate the ability of magnetism to pass through objects. Tape a magnet from the end of a folded coat hanger. Now tie a thread to a paper clip, place it gently against the magnet, then using the string , gently pull the clip away from the magnet seemingly suspending the paperclip in the air. Then tape the string down to hold the clip in place. Now have the children predict and test objects such a paper and aluminum foil which are inserted between the magnet and clip.
8. Finally, read the book What Makes a Magnet? with the children reinforcing investigations, suggesting new ones, and reviewing key concepts.
RELATED BOOKS:
What Magnets Can Do by Allan Fowler, Children's Press, 1995. ISBN 0-51646034-X
Forces Around Us by Sally Hewitt, Children's Press. 1998. ISBN 0-516263900
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