Magnet Science

We have been exploring magnets at our discovery table and it has been so much fun! Magnets are fascinating to young children. We have horseshoe magnets, block magnets, and magnet wands. The children have been collecting all sorts of things from around our rooms to test out and see which things are magnetic and which are not. They discovered that shiny metal things were attracted to the magnets, BUT... not all metal. We wondered about that, so we did a bit of Google searching and here is what we found: The only element attracted to a magnet is iron, so if something is attracted to a magnet it contains iron.

• Magnets are objects that produce an area of magnetic force called a magnetic field.
• Magnetic fields by themselves are invisible to the human eye.
• Magnets only attract certain types of metals, other materials such as glass, plastic and wood aren't attracted.
• Metals such as iron, nickel and cobalt are attracted to magnets.
• Most metals, however, are not attracted to magnets, these include copper, silver, gold, magnesium, platinum, aluminum and more. They may, however, magnetize a small amount while placed in a magnetic field.
• Magnetism can attract magnetic objects or push them away.
• Magnets have a magnetic north pole and a magnetic south pole. If the same pole of two magnets are placed near each other they will push away (repel), while if different poles are placed near each other they will pull together (attract).
• Magnetic objects must be inside the magnetic field to respond, which is why you may have to move a magnet closer for it to have an effect.

This past week we combined our learning about winter water and decided to freeze some of the objects that we discovered to be magnetic. 

The next day we dumped the frozen ice cubes into trays and began exploring again, but first, we made our predictions.

Much to our surprise, the magnets were still attracted to the metal objects even when they were frozen solid inside the ice.

The strong magnets even attracted the metals through our plastic container.

We noticed that as we played with the ice cubes, they began melting, but the magnets still did their job.

 Even Mrs. Beckmann was fascinated!!

Next week we will continue our magnet play using this contraption that my son built for us:) 

Thank you, Lucas!!