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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Teaching About Magnets in Kindergarten

For Teachers K
Students explore magnets through the five lessons of this unit. The everyday uses of magnets and an awareness of magnetic attraction form the basis of the skills presented in these lessons.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Magnets 2: How Strong is Your Magnet?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students experimentally measure the strength of a magnet and graph how the strength changes as the distance from the magnet increases, and as the barrier (masking tape) is built between the magnet and an iron object.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What is an Electromagnet?

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students give examples of electromagnet applications. In this physics lesson plan, students explore what makes electromagnets work. They experiment picking paper clips with it.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

About Magnets

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders conduct simple experiments , observe and explain what they discovered.  In this simple experiments lesson students design a magnet and make a compass. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Magnetic Personality

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students learn about magnets and how they are formed and used. In this magnet lesson, students investigate the properties of magnets and how engineers use magnets in technology. They specifically learn about memory storage.
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Organizer
Curated OER

Electromagnet

For Students 3rd - 6th
In this electromagnet worksheet, students will complete a graphic organizer by writing in the definition and 6 uses of electromagnetism.
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Amazing Magnets Crossword Puzzle

For Students 4th - 8th
In this physics worksheet, students identify and write the correct word for each description related to magnets. There are 12 descriptions to complete.
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Unit Plan
Curated OER

May the Force Be With You: A Unit on Magnets

For Teachers K
Students uncover data about magnets and practice classifying them by amounts of attraction and magnetism as an invisible force is introduced. The unit presents the topic within eight lessons.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Magnetic Art

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students explore the different fields of force of magnets and magnetized objects through the movement of metal filings. They create a work of art.
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Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: How the Strength of a Magnet Varies With Temperature

For Students 6th - 8th
Physicists sometimes study matter under extreme conditions. For example, think of the emptiness of interstellar space vs. the unimaginable crush of pressure at the center of a neutron star, or an object dipped in liquid nitrogen vs. the...
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Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Investigating the Magnetic Force Field: Calculating Magnetic Pull

For Teachers K - 1st
In this classroom activity, the learners will investigate the magnetic pull of a bar magnet at varying distances with the use of paper clips. Students will hypothesize, conduct the experiment, collect the data, and draw conclusions that...
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Article
Society for Science and the Public

Science News for Students: 3 D Printers Offer Better Way to Make Some Magnets

For Students 9th - 10th
Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee has been working on a way to cut back expenses on powerful magnets used in various objects we use every day like computers and cars. Science News for Students probes into the investigation's...
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Activity
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Spin Right 'Round With This Simple Electric Motor

For Students 6th - 8th
If you put on clothes that were washed in a washing machine, rode in a car, ate food from a fridge, warmed up lunch in a microwave, or played a video game, you used an electric motor. Try this science fair project and you'll learn how to...
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Website
Canada Science and Technology Museum

Canada Science and Technology Museum: Background Information for Electricity

For Students 9th - 10th
The Canada Science and Technology Museum answers some of the most common questions about electricity. For example, get the definition of electricity, the difference between alternating and direct currents, and learn how a fuse works.
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Unit Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Ga Virtual Learning: Magnetism

For Students 9th - 10th
In this interactive unit students will see how magnets work and how they are used in some of the most useful and common devices today.
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Magnetic or Not?

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students explore the basic magnetic properties of different substances, particularly aluminum and steel. There is a common misconception that magnets attract all metals, largely due to the ubiquity of steel in metal products. The...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Circuits and Magnetic Fields

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this activity, students use the same method as in the activity from lesson 2 to explore the magnetism due to electric current instead of a permanent magnet. Students use a compass and circuit to trace the magnetic field lines induced...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Visualizing Magnetic Field Lines

For Teachers 10th - 12th
In this activity, students take the age old concept of etch-a-sketch a step further. Using iron filings, students begin visualizing magnetic field lines. To do so, students use a compass to read the direction of the magnet's magnetic...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Induced Emf in a Coil of Wire

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students use a simple set up consisting of a coil of wire and a magnet to visualize induced EMF. First, students move a coil of wire near a magnet and observe the voltage that results. They then experiment with moving the wire, magnet,...
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Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Clean Up This Mess

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students are challenged to design a method for separating steel from aluminum based on magnetic properties as is frequently done in recycling operations. To complicate the challenge, the magnet used to separate the steel must be able to...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Electric and Magnetic Personalities of Mr. Maxwell

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students are briefly introduced to Maxwell's equations and their significance to phenomena associated with electricity and magnetism. Basic concepts such as current, electricity and field lines are covered and reinforced. Through...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Magnetic Materials

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students begin working on the grand challenge of the unit by thinking about the nature of metals and quick, cost-effective means of separating different metals, especially steel. They arrive at the idea, with the help of input from...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Magnetic Fields

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students visualize the magnetic field of a strong permanent magnet using a compass. The lesson begins with an analogy to the effect of the Earth's magnetic field on a compass. Students see the connection that the compass simply responds...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Electricity and Magnetic Fields

For Teachers 9th - 10th
The grand challenge for this legacy cycle unit is for students to design a way to help a recycler separate aluminum from steel scrap metal. In previous lessons, they have looked at how magnetism might be utilized. In this instructional...