Magnets are Magnificent!

It is truly amazing what can happen when you pose a question to a child. The wheels start to turn in their brains, their bodies start to move and voila... they work until they discover the answer! We began our studies on Magnets and I decided to do an Inquiry Based Approach to our learning. At each center I posed a question and the students had to, through hands on activities, figure out the answer! The best part is all the smiles on their faces!

Students were asked "What can you build with Magnets?" They quickly realized.. you can build a lot! These students here had created a HUGE chain of magnets that had to be put together using the proper poles of the magnets. They also discovered.. there is a breaking point! When they went to lift up their creation.. it fell apart!! You can see the devastation on their faces. Don't worry, they got over it quickly and began building again!

At this station students were asked "What is magnetic in our classroom?" The answer: a lot! Students went around testing all sorts of things in our classroom. They recorder their results. How do you know if it is magnetic you ask? Well they thought "If the magnet sticks to it, that means it is magnetic!" 

Students were asked "Are all metals magnetic?" Students decided to test the materials that were provided to figure out the answer to the question. They recorded their results on the sheet and realized that not all metals are magnetic! Some students were very surprised by this information! Another question that was asked was "Are all magnets the same strength?" I left a few different magnets that were different sizes and shapes. Students thought they would test the magnets by determining how many paper clips the magnet could hold. The answer: the bigger the magnet the stronger its strength! 

More building fun!