In my last post about physics I told the story of how I overwhelmed my students and my plan to make the next class fun. I'm happy to report that's exactly what happened!
Flashing LEDs
The first experiment used a flashing LED to demonstrate how a capacitor will hold a charge. Here's an image of the setup.
And here is a video of it in action.
The kids thought this was cool, but it takes more than something this simple to keep their attention these days.
Hands on magnetics
Next I handed out a selection of magnets and my improvised field viewer (see it in the pic below).
The students played with magnets and thought the way the iron filings moved around was pretty cool.
Monster putty!
One of the most fun experiments I've done with the kids is magnetic silly putty. It never gets old.
You create it by combining your standard silly putty with iron filings and a bit of oil (I used RC car oil/lubricant) to make the putty softer.
Once it's all worked in, you place a strong magnet (a ring neodynium one in our case) on top of it and watch as the magnet is "eaten" by the putty.
It can take a while depending on the consistency of the putty and the strength of the magnet. The 10 second video below actually took 2:30 minutes.
Electromagnets
We also hooked up an electromagnet and made coins flip. Here's a video of that. It's a lot more exciting in person!
We also verified that the coil turns into a magnet only when current is applied.
Simple motor
The final experiment we did was create a simple motor out of a coil of wire, paperclips, a magnet and battery.
There was quite a bit of excitement on this one because sometimes it would spark and smoke when the coil got "stuck" in the magnetic field. Video for this one is forthcoming!
I have three more weeks of class on electricity and magnetism. Next week will be all about levitation with magnets.
Do you have a favorite magnetic experiment appropriate for middle schoolers? Let me know in the comments and maybe we'll do it!
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