Magnets Experiment #3515

Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)? While magnets themselves aren’t part of the 5/6 curriculum in BC, simple machines, forces and gravity are. I could see modifying it to fit in with these subjects. Also, I do a lot of work teaching children how to conduct experiments, keep science journals etc. so a simple experiment like this would be ideal to practice these skills.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful? It seems fairly simple - though I’m sure my students would surprise me and find something unexpected as challenging.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher do during this lesson? For this lesson I think my role would just be to ask probing questions and push students to explore different magnets, different directions, orienting the sensor differently etc.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like? Understanding that certain parts of the experiment had to remain consistent so that we could explain our results in terms of what we changed; documenting results accurately.20220315_151300

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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?
I could not really find a fit in terms of what I teach at the junior high science level as we have limited points in dealing with magnets and their magnetic field. I think it would be interesting in the science 9 electricity unit to use the magnet sensor with the St. Louis motor and when kids learn about electromagnetic induction. They could compare the size of the magnetic field based on the conditions they have if they were to build electromagnets.

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful? What does a successful teacher do during this lesson?

I think the biggest hurdle would be keeping the magnets away from sensitive electronics:) I think I would feel successful if I could lead them through a discussion about the different variables in the testing and gathering a sense of their ideas as to why the data worked out the way it did.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?

I think the questions that followed the testing really made you think about what is happening with the strength of the field being produced and success to me would be allowing the data to help students visualize this. The students would be able to follow the instructions fairly well.

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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?

We briefly discuss the Earth’s magnetic field during a unit on geology. This activity could be used to help students understand how magnetic fields work and change.

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
All students need to have identical materials so they can get identical results. I would need to ensure that students are prepared to follow instructions regarding how to use rulers and orient the sensors when collecting data.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
Giving students guidance to attempt changes to receive different results after they have collected initial data - changing the type of magnet, changing the orientation of the sensor, etc. Also, ensure that I am available to answer questions as needed.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
Follow the instructions to ensure data remains consistent among groups. Then, being willing to change variables to see how the data change.
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Keeping the magnets away from the sensors will be an issue. I left mine a little too close and it “jumped” to my sensor.

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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?

The magnet project is a good fit for engineering, as it will be important for them to understand how using magnets can affect their other projects like drones (cargo), etc.

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?

I would have to help them think about how to be more precise; for example, when holding the sensor by hand and holding the magnet with the other hand, there is a lot of variability that affects the data.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher do during this lesson?

Unlike Hello, World, in this lesson I might need to start with a comprehensive demo, and begin with a lead-in topic about magnets. I might show relevant short videos of people using magnets with machinery or computers, and the dangers. Then my role would be hands-off while they explore, and I circulate.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?

Student success might look like kids fastidiously setting up contraptions for accuracy, and then carefully taking measurements, and looking forward to their results and further learning.

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I agree! I teach K-5 and will need to explain the importance of not touching the magnet to the computer especially the screen!

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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?

The magnet project is a good fit for engineering standards for grades 3-5 and the 3rd grade Forces and Interactions big idea. It fits the performance expectation perfectly! (Ask questions to determine cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other. It could also be used to address the standard that has students define a simple design problem that can be solved by applying scientific ideas about magnets.

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?

I would have to help them find ways to keep the sensor stationary while they are testing. It would be a great time to talk about how scientist have to set up fair test to be sure that their data is accurate and reliable.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher do during this lesson? I would provide prompts, scaffolds to the instruction, and freedom to make mistakes and learn from them. I would demonstrate what a magnetic field is by showing one with iron filings in a bottle and then hold a magnet up to it. I would use that to explain the x, y, and z axes as most of my students would not have been exposed to that yet.

I would definitely start by showing a phenomena surrounding magnets such as the sea turtle phenomena of returning to the place of birth to lay eggs.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?

Student success might look like kids getting the sensor and arduino board hooked up to the computer, the items set up for the experiment in a way that allows for a fair test, and data is collected and imported into a digital notebook of some kind such as Google Slides.![chart%20(3)|690x320]chart%20(4)

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This lesson would fit well in our 8th grade as students learn about magnetic fields. Depending on grade level, students may need help getting the ardunio set up and connected to the sensor. I think my role if teaching 8th grade students would be to help students with questions and then facilitate a discussion about the results. Success would be students collecting data and using that data to support a conclusion about the activity.

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You teachers are amazing - keep going! You are teaching our future astronauts.
Best,
J-D Bartoe

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Love the idea of importing the data to google slides.

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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum? This totally fits with the NGSS unit of fields and forces. Perfect for my 8th graders.

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
I think I would need to help them to remember not to get the magnets close to the electronics. As middle schoolers, they aren’t always the best at following directions.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher do during this lesson?

After a quick lesson on how best to operate the magnets, I would be circulating in the classroom as a facilitator and cheerleader again.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
For me student success is engagement and of course true learning coming from discovery.

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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?
As part of the engineering curriculum, I do not teach magnetism. However, for science this would be a great way to visualize/measure. A lot better than just watching/waving around two magnets or one magnet with a ferrous material.

Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
I really don’t think the hardware will be an issue. I had to order and wait for the magnets to complete this project (late, late, late). If the computers did not have a solid state drive, would be concerned about the magnets being around the computers and students intentionally/unintentionally corrupting the drive. The LMS was/is also an issue…would need to be addressed.
As normal, my job would be as a facilitator or guide…would treat this inquiry/project based learning.

If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
Students correctly assembling the hardware, programming the board, making measurements, observations, and drawing conclusions. If incorrect/in error, students attempt to explore why…

Figured I would upload a photo to prove I am doing the experiments…

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Agree…sometimes student success is just learning from attempting the experiment. Sometimes just getting the hardware to work is a learning experience and a taste of success. Technology is great when it works and sometimes you learn more when it doesn’t.

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1. Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?

  • This lesson fits very well in the the first unit of all our secondary science courses in Ontario which is “Scientific Investigation Skills & Career Exploration”. Specifically, it would fit in well with the scientific investigation skills. This experiment would be great to model the scientific method with even in a non-physics related unit.

2. Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?

  • Setting up the Seeeduino, code, connections, and then taking the measurements correctly. To be honest, I do not know a lot about magnets. I did this experiment with my 7 year old daughter and we found it challenging to take some of the readings on the OLED display. Some of the readings were ALL over the place and we didn’t know which one to record to best represent our data. So we tried again and with a different magnet and it didn’t seem to help much. We tried our best to keep the same orientation of the magnet and the sensor board placed in the exact same location, but this did not seem to help our extreme fluctuations in readings.

3. If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher do during this lesson?

  • I would briefly introduce the task and I like to set up a demo/example station of what everything should look like set up so students can reference if needed. Then, I would circulate throughout the class to support students questions.

4. If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?

  • Students role would be to be active participants in the experiment. Student success looks like them actively engaged with everything set up correctly and taking data measurements. If, like we did, they get odd readings, trying to troubleshoot and explain why this happened. I’m still unsure exactly why this happened, but I think it had something to do with the size of our magnets and orientation.

***Sorry this is so late. I didn’t have any rare earth magnets and my initial kit came about a week late. I’m working on catching up!

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I like that you mentioned teamwork in your post. I did this experiment with my 7 year old daughter and I don’t think I could have easily done this one my own. Holding the sensor in place, holding the magnet in place. Especially on the 1 inch position so it wouldn’t try to connect with my sensor. Then writing the data while holding everything and not rotating the magnet. My daughter helped a lot! When I do labs in my classes, I like groups of 3.

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1. Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?
a. It does not currently fit into our curriculum, HOWEVER it is an excellent lesson to include in a new curriculum we are creating for a middle-school STEM engagement program called “Cadet Space and Entrepreneur Program (CSEP)”.
b. The 3-part curriculum focuses on the upcoming NASA Artemis Mission and one lesson could be using this experiment to teach students about magnetic fields and how to use them as a method of navigation on other planets/exoplanets/moons (like the sea turtle lesson showed).

2. Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
a. I would definitely pair them up to complete this lesson. Team work to position the sensor and magnets as well as a second pair of eyes on the incoming data and readings.

3. If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson? a. Facilitation role! This lesson can be navigated with ease for high schoolers and middle schoolers, but would be a bit trickier with younger ages. I would modify my role for younger ones to be more guidance-focused and helping secure the sensor and arrange magnets.

4. If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like? a. Light-bulb moments, empowerment due to learning new skills, excitement at experimenting, inspiration from learning how animals use the magnetic field to navigate and how can we “piggyback” on that evolutionary skill.
Magnet%20Lesson%20Seeduino

I agree that this is a WAY more engaging method of teaching how to measure and collect data for magnets. It also shows a new way of learning about magnets, kind of expanding “the box” some teachers can get stuck in when teaching concepts like magnetism.

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Magnets! who doesn’t like to play with polarization! I did this experiment on the weekend with my Grandchildren. they loved it, They even made up their own different scenarios to see results! I will definitely add this to my tech week stations!

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I hadn’t thought of hooking up the board to a huge tv or monitor - I think it would be a great idea to have a reading that we all could ‘see’ and then the students could explore more on their own.
I love the magnetic lessons!

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Where does this lesson fit in with your curriculum (if the lesson is not a fit for the class you teach, how could the lesson be modified so that it is applicable to your curriculum)?
Next year, I am teaching fundamentals of science - basic physics, earth, space, and energy. These activities would be great for the physics and for the energy units.
Which part or parts of the lesson would your students need extra support in order to be successful?
These students are a little behind, so some reading support and some guidance will help. I also really liked Angela’s idea of sharing on the big tv or projector so that they can follow along a little easier.
These lessons also apply to earth science and to wildlife - I think there’s so much to teach with magnetic fields and being able to harness some of the changes, the data, - wow… so much fun! Magnets are already fun and now we add data and ‘proof’ that we are seeing something grand!
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your role during the class. What does a successful teacher actively do during this lesson?
Teacher success will be having students excited and wanting more. As a teacher, I am hoping I will be able to assist and learn with the students.
If you were to teach this lesson to your class, describe your student’s role during the class. What does “student success” look like?
I think the students will be successful if they are wondering why and trying to make some changes. Also, if they are wondering what’s next.

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