Pre-School Magnet Science

Beginning last week, we started our magnet unit in science.

We talked about what magnets are and the lines of force that they create from the North Pole of the magnet to the South Pole. We did a number of activities to show these magnetic forces in action. We felt the strong force that occurs when two like poles repel one another and made discs "float" and cars move by themselves by using these forces. We "fished" for paperclips in a cup of water without touching them or getting wet and moved paperclips through mazes from underneath a piece of cardboard showing how strong magnets are and how they can pull through various mediums. We also did magnet painting! We tested various objects from around the classroom for magnetic attraction and learned that only certain types of metal are attracted to magnets, such as iron, nickel and cobalt. We were surprised that no American coins are attracted to magnets, being made mostly of copper, but that many foreign coins are.

1. Permanent or hard magnets that create their own magnetic field all the time.
2. Temporary or soft magnets that produce magnetic fields while near another magnetic field, and for a short time after leaving it.
3.  Electromagnets that produce magnetic fields only when electricity travels through their wire coils.

We created temporary magnets in our classroom by rubbing a large nail 50 times in the same direction with the North Pole of a permanent magnet then we watched as the nail was then able to pick up a paperclip. We also made electromagnets by coiling a wire around a large nail and attaching a stripped end of the wire to one end of a battery and then watching how the nail picked up a paperclip when the other stripped end of the wire was touched to the other end of the battery. As soon as we disconnected the wire from the battery, the paperclip would fall from the nail.

We talked about how Earth also has north and south poles and behaves like a giant magnet. We discussed what a compass is and how earth's magnetic poles make it work. We created our very own compass in the classroom by making a temporary magnet out of a needle and floating it on top of a piece of cork in a bowl of water. We then watched as the needle repeatedly spun around to face the earth's magnetic north.

Next up is an experiment to determine if iron fortified cereal really has metallic iron in it...stay tuned!!  

Miss Karen McCloy

Science Education Teacher