Magnet Experiments

We've been learning about Magnets in our new Science unit. So far, we discussed contact and non-contact forces and we discovered that magnetism and gravity are both non-contact forces. 

We are going to focus on magnets in Grade Four. We shared some examples of where magnets are used in everyday life, such as fridge doors, bag clips, toys, cupboard doors, whiteboard erasers, Smartboard markers, the pens on some phones, inside electronics, fridge magnets, iPad covers, mittens, and more!

Then, we experimented with magnets to discover which materials are magnetic and not. Magnetic materials include: cobalt, iron, and nickel. Non-magnetic materials include: plastic, cotton, wood, copper, aluminum, rubber, and glass. We noticed that some pennies were magnetic and others were not. This was interesting because some pennies are made out of copper, which is non-magnetic. It must mean that some pennies are made with a blend of metals. 

Today, we tested the strength of different magnets and how strong the magnetic field is.

Here, we are moving the magnet close to the item (washer)
and measuring the distance that it takes to "attract" the item.

Here, we traced the magnet and magnetic object to show how close they were
when the magnet attracted the object.

Here, we are measuring with a ruler the distance between the magnet and object.

"I enjoyed how we get to test the magnets how they go apart or more sideways or more up." ~ SS

"I loved how we got to test magnets and figure out how strong the magnets are and what kind of metal it attracts to." ~ Nollan

"I loved the experimenting." ~ MM

"I liked how we got to fiddle with the magnets." ~ Felicia

"I liked tracing the magnet and object." ~ Finnley

"I liked how we got to use real magnets to experiment with Science." ~ Hugh

"I really enjoy testing them. It was fun and we learned a lot about it." ~ Zinat

"I loved how we got to explore with different magnets, finding out how far distance you have to go for it to attract." ~ Fox

"I liked how we got to explore different experiments with the same magnets." ~ LD

"I liked that we got to explore the power of the magnets." ~ Davyd

"I loved the explore and I test them with the bingo chips and I test with the green one. Everything stick with that except the popsicle stick. I enjoy it." ~ Jaivivaan

"I liked the way the magnets were powerful and we got to move around the class and test if it was magnetic or not." ~ DA

"I liked everything about it and I really enjoyed this one that we did." ~ Aroosha

"I enjoyed using different materials." ~ Elaina