STEM Learning: Investigating magnetism and force

Thursday 14th November,

Science is our understanding of how the world works. Playing with magnets is one of the first bits of science most children discover. They are an interesting way to introduce Kindergarteners to the concept of force. While kindergarteners may not be ready for advanced lessons in physical sciences, many enjoy playing with magnets and using them to attract and repel objects. Aside from magnetism, exploring magnets makes a good introduction to learning about the nature of science, especially because magnetic force is not visible. Approaching magnet play as investigation opens the door to learning about science.

Magnetic effects involve transformation of energy. Energy however is a difficult concept and we have chosen to use magnetism to illustrate the concept of force. Force can be defined as ‘anything which can cause an object to start moving, stop moving or change it’s direction.’ A force cannot exist by itself, it can only be exerted by one object to another, for example a magnet attracting a metal.

Today we wanted to explore how magnetic force works to answer some of our children's questions as they have accidentally come across this discovery in their environment during play. The children really enjoyed the challenge of acting as detectives when searching for things in the room that are attracted to the magnet.

One of the most interesting findings for our children today was the way magnets can attract other magnets at a distance, invisibly through what we call a magnetic field. A magnet can act at a distance and can cause a pushing or pulling force on other objects it isn’t touching. We discovered that magnetic fields could penetrate through all kinds of materials, not just air. We can observe how magnets can cut through paper by sticking sheets of paper against a metal door. We can observe a magnet being able to pick up a long chain of paper clips with each clip magnetising the next one along. This demonstrates to us that a magnetic field can penetrate through magnetic materials.

Some conceptions of magnetism we learnt today:  

+ A magnet is any object that attracts some metals

+ Magnets push and pull some matter - Magnets can ‘attract’ and ‘repel’

+ Ends of magnets may push or pull other ends of magnets. Magnetic poles work with opposites attracting (the north and south pole) and like poles repel and push away from each other.

+ Magnets have no effect on some objects (aluminium, brass silver and copper objects)

+ Magnets have many different shapes

+ Magnets can be used in many ways

+ Magnets are strongest at their ends

+ A magnet creates an invisible area of magnetism all around it called a ‘magnetic field’ 

We have over the past few weeks collected a variety of magnets and metal and non-metal objects. We planned to have one of each type of magnet and a handful of mixed magnetic and non-magnetic objects for each child in our group to experiment with. We established our children's understanding by reading a magnet related book called “Mickey’s magnets” We asked, “What can magnets do?” and “What kinds of objects can magnets pick up?” “What happens when magnets touch each other?” Sophie said, “It moves away when the magnet touch.” Michael said "You put the magnet on the fridge and you can play with magnet shapes." Ava said, "You can stick magnets to metal."

We encouraged the children to begin to use science-based terminology with words such as – push, pull, force, attract and repel. We asked the children to define the words based on our demonstration and asked which objects the magnets picked up and why. 

Our children were able to measure magnetism by experimenting with some free time, holding two magnets together at varying distances to feel their force. We then flipped over one of the magnets to see how the force changes, and pick up and repel various objects. The strength of the field around a magnet depends on how close you get. It’s strongest very near the magnet and falls of quickly as you move away.

Throughout the activity, children were reminded that good science means making observations, testing ideas out and sharing them with others. As the children practiced with magnets, they have discovered the power of attraction lies in the nature of the material, not the nature of the person wielding the magnet. With future lessons, we would like to explore moving with magnets further. We could investigate which magnetic energy allows energy through and which do not.