Thursday, November 29, 2012

Floating Paperclip

What a fun day!
I wanted a quick and fun activity to do with my magnets lesson today.  Yesterday, I introduced the term magnetic field by having the students feel the force of magnetic poles repelling.  They enjoyed it, but I wasn't confident with their mastery of the term magnetic field.  So, I tried a super easy experiment that the kids loved. 
Take paperclips and tie a piece of yarn to each one. 
Tape the yarn to the desk and give the kids a magnet.





TADA!!!
The quietest bus call all year!  This was all they wanted to do!

It literally took minutes to set up and I plan to leave the clips taped to the desks for the rest of the week.  The kids were fascinated with trying to make the magnet float.  I even told them that they could talk while they worked as long as I heard them using the term magnetic field.  Bonus! They figured out the poles are where the magnet has the greatest pull!  It was awesome!  I am a genius!  I can't wait to see how they perform on their assessment.  :)  Try it!

No comments:

Post a Comment