We have spent the last few weeks learning and playing with magnets.  Students have done experiments learning about attraction and what things are ‘magnetic’ and which ones are not.  They have also learned about the two ‘poles’ – north and south – and how the opposites will attract each other but the same one will push apart from the same one.

We also experimented with the different magnets to see which ones were the strongest by seeing how many paper clips they could hold in a line hanging down. Originally most students had the same number of paper clips hanging off each type of magnets.  Through experimenting one student discovered how to magnetize the paper clips to have more paper clips hanging.  Then we all went back and re-tried all the different magnets and managed to get better results by magnetizing the clips as we pushed them over the magnet to join the line.

The students had a lot of fun and also learned a lot.  We also spoke about how our earth is one huge magnet – with a north pole an a south pole.