5th grade Magnets and Electricity

Emily’s recent science unit has been all about magnets and electricity.  This was done over the last month.
We began with some magnet exploration experiments and discussed the magnetic poles.  We also talked about how a magnet lines the particles up.  We also learned about lodestone.
 
Her first experiment was to write a hypothesis as to which items the magnet would attract. She had to record the results, and compare the two.

The next thing we did was see if a magnet could work through objects.  We tied a string on a paper clip and taped it to the table.  Then taped our magnetic wand to the top of a cup.  We noticed that the magnetic force was still there even if we couldn’t see it.  We also saw how many papers we could put in between before it fell.  This tied in the fact that magnetic force is invisible.
 
Our next experiment was to see if magnets are always magnetic.  If water, or heat or cold influenced their activity.

Then we tried to make an electromagnet.  I say, tried because we just couldn’t get it to work.  (See we even had two computers at the table researching what we were doing wrong, we still don’t know.)

Next I let her play with some iron filings. This way she could see the ways the magnet pulls. She loved this. 

We went right into electricity.

She learned about basic circuits with a switch and how our light switches work.

Then she learned about insulators and conductors.
The insulators were:

Herself

and ice

The conductors were:

A lemon

and tinfoil.

Last she learned about series and parallel circuits and the qualities of each one.
 
She built a parallel circuit. 
I also asked her questions about which things would be wired in parallel and which things would be wired in series.
This was really fun and I am glad that we have been incorporating a lot more hands on science. 











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