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Science Peer Lesson ED 120 Tori Kessel November 26, 2013

What Do Magnets Attract?


Unit: Forces and Interactions This lesson could potentially stand on its own, or used in conjuncture with previous lessons on force and attraction, especially in relation to energy, static attraction or other physical science topics. Lesson: What do magnets attract? Grade level: 2 or 3 CA science standards: 2.1f (Physical Sciences): Students know magnets can be used to make some objects move without being touched (p 14). 2.4a (Investigation and Experimentation) Students will make predictions based on observed patters (p 15). Next Generation Science Standards: (Grade 3) Disciplinary Core Idea: Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions 3-PS2-3 Students will be able to ask questions to determine cause and affect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other. Examples of a magnetic force could include the force between two permanent magnets, the force between an electromagnet and steel paperclips, and the force exerted by one magnet versus the force exerted by two magnets. Examples of cause and effect relationships could include how the distance between objects affects strength of the force and how the orientation of magnets affects the direction of the magnetic force. 3-PS2-4 Define a simple design problem that can be solved by applying scientific ideas about magnets. Examples of problems could include constructing a latch to keep a door shut and creating a device to keep two moving objects from touching each other. Knowledge outcomes. By the end of the lesson, students should be able to: 1) Record data found during experimentation 2) Articulate that magnets are not attracted to all metals 3) Form a hypothesis as to what kind of objects magnets are attracted to Process outcomes. By the end of the lesson, students will have had experience in 1) Testing their predictions through attempting placing a magnet next to an object to see if they attract one another 2) Making predictions as to what objects a magnet will be attracted to, using their past observations from previous experimentation.

3) Making observation of objects and the material they are made out of. 4) Noticing patterns in attraction of magnets to certain objects 5) Making hypotheses as to why magnets are attracted to certain objects. Materials: Varity of magnets, ideally one for each student. A variety of metal and non-metal objects scattered around the room. Some key objects to include could be: o Coins o Silverware o Jewelry o Office supplies (paper clips, tacks) o Aluminum can o Tin can o Pot or pan Observation worksheet, 1 per student

Room set-up Class will sit at desks in their table groups across from their Discovery Partner. They will clear their desks and get out a pen or pencil. On whiteboard, have written in advance: 1) What do magnets attract? Also have on the whiteboard our word wall words: Predictions, Results, Observation Magnets, Attraction And write - Steps: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Find object Predict whether or not you think the magnet will be attracted to it Record your prediction Test your prediction Record your results Write down observations you made about the object you tested

As well as Test to see if your magnet is attracted so something On your clothes? In your desk? On a wall or on the floor?

Procedure: Raise your hand if you recognize this (hold up magnet). Yes, is a magnet! Magnets are amazing because they have the power to attract other objects! That means that they can connect to other objects just by being near them. When two things are attracted to each other, it means they want to be near each other. Set up a problem or question: Magnets though are picky, and they are not attracted to everything. Today, we are going to go on a discovery to see if we can figure out what exactly it is that magnets like. What are magnets attracted to? Provide additional sense of direction - Have students clear desks and get out only pen or pencil. -Have one person from each table come up and get handouts for their table. -Set up doc cam and put the worksheet under doc cam. To figure out the answer to this question, we are going to do a variety of experiments. Everybody turn your paper to the side that says Discovering Magnets at the top and has grid table below that. Here I have a bag of magnets, we are going to use these magnets to see what they are attracted to. Youll be able to discover on your own, but first, lets test the first two together. Frist, the white board. Is the magnet going to be attracted to the white board? Write your prediction, or guess, in the box. Raise your hand if you think this magnet will be attracted, or will stick to the white board? Raise your hand if you think it will not? Everybody think in your mind, if we want to test our predictions and see whether or not the magnet is attracted to the white board, what should we do? -Draw a name from the popsicle sticks. Denae, will you come up to test our hypothesis? What are our results class? -YES! Write it in the box. Now in the last box, write down an observation about this object. What do you think this is made out of? This will allow us to looks for patters in what is and is not attracted to magnets. -Repeat again with a second object, ideally a metallic object that is not attracted to magnets (meaning one that does not contain iron). The rest of the objects you will be discovering on your own. You will be working with your discovery partner, who is the person sitting across (or beside) you. You will have ____ min to go around your room with your paper, pen, and something hard to write on and perform as many mini experiments as you can. There are some ideas listed here to start you off, but you dont have to just do those. Test at least 5 objects of your own. When the music stops come I am going to say return to your seats and you will all come sit down at your tables.

You can experiment with any objects you find, but there are also yellow question marks around the room with locations of some specific objects you can test. Remember our science rules, and leave objects where you found them. -Have someone repeat back directions. Are you ready scientists to discover magnets?! Table one, come up with your discovery partner to get your magnets and go explore!... -Have each table group come up at a time and get their magnets. Provide opportunity to interact with the materials under investigation -Give each student a magnet or two and give them time to go around the room and test their objects and record their results as demonstrated by the first example. -I will create a few stations with some objects Ive brought in collected that they can go to, but they are also welcome to discover things around them in the classroom that they want to test out. -I will circle around and offer to exchange magnets with them if they want during their time of experimentation. -At the end of the time, I will turn off the music and ask them to return to their seats. -We will go into a time of discussion and combining of our results. -Well go through the first ones together as a class and then go onto some new discoveries from the group. -Depending on timing/where the class is at, we will go into a time of discovering what is similar about the ones that were attracted to the magnets. We can make an all-class list of our observations of materials the magnets were attracted to. From there we can make a hypothesis. Follow-up activities or assignments: -Students will fill out the back side of their discovery worksheet. This includes questions like Does it make a difference if you use one magnet or the other? Do some magnets seem to work better than others? Why? What if you use two magnets at a time? Do you notice any patters in what magnets are attracted to and what magnets are not attracted to?

-For homework or the next day using sentence starters, students will in their discovery journals will answer one of the following questions: Why do you think magnets are attracted to some objects but not others? (you are creating a hypothesis here) What are some ways magnets can be useful? How are magnets used in your home?

-Eventually well get to the point where I tell them, or a student who knows shares with the class, that it is a certain type of metal- iron, that is attracted to magnets. So anything with iron in it magnets stick to, but metals like aluminum and copper, metal is not attracted to them. Optional follow-up assignment: -Put out books on magnets, if students want to discover more about magnets or try to research the answer to the question of what magnets attract, they can look in the books. -Test some magnets and materials at home! What do you notice? Texts and Literature on Magnetism: What Makes a Magnet by Frankly M Branley Find Out About Magnets by Steve Parker Additional Options/Notes: -This can also be an ongoing, independent work time activity set up in the back of the room. There can be a table with magnets and various materials that students can test and play with. There can also be taped to the table or in a folder on the table an ongoing class list, like the one given to individual students during this lesson, in which the students will record each time they discover something new. There can also be a Hypothesis Jar or list where students can write on index cards their hypothesis that answer the question, what are magnets attracted to? Then at some point during the end of the week the teacher will take out the hypotheses and choose a few to test with the class. -This lesson could also be done completely in the students discovery journals. It would require budgeting a bit more time to set up the table together at the beginning of the lesson, but because it is basic enough, it could be done on lined paper as directed through a doc cam. -Also, if there are too many students and/or not enough time to set up a classroom, a simplified version of this lesson could be done by doing it together as a class. This would involve brining in a variety of objects. Showing the object and having students predict and record their prediction or whether or not the magnet will be attracted to it, raising hands to vote, and then having one student, or the teacher, test the prediction in front of the whole class. Then go onto the next object. This can still be really fun, especially if set up like a game to see how many time your predictions are correct. And if the items are placed in a strategic order, you can really lead to both more discovery and more questions among the students even in this simple format.

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