Middle School Inquiry Lab on Electromagnetism
In this lab students will create an electromagnet. They will be challenged to experiment with changing variables to better discover the factor at work.
Each inquiry lab will contain an essential question that will drive the lesson and make students think. For this lesson, the essential question is:
- What are some factors that affect the strength of a temporary magnet?
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND MATERIALS LIST:
Students will begin the lab by reading the essential question and background information. This can be done individually, as lab groups, or as a whole class. If you consider lab groups, you also might include some type of whole class formative checks before digging into the lab.
.svg)
Materials List:
- a fresh D-size battery
- large iron nail
- 3 feet of thin coated copper wire
- electrical tape
- loosened staples or small paper clips
- scissors
- 1 bar magnet
PROCEDURE:
For this lab, students will be testing the magnetic capabilities of their electromagnet. Using a copper wire, an iron nail, and a battery, students will create an electromagnet to see how many staples they can create. By wrapping the wire around the nail a certain number of times, students will count the number of items picked up by their magnet. Students will record the number and then test again. Each time they test, they remove two coils from the nail. Students will continue testing and removing until there are only 2 coils left.
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING:
At this point in the lab, students will be checked for understanding by answering questions about their findings. Here is one that comes with the lab:
- How did the strength of the magnet change with the number of coils?
CONCLUSION
Students will go back to the essential question and write a CER (Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) to conclude the lab. Once completed, students will reflect back on their learning by answering the following questions:
- Name two types of magnetism and describe their differences.
- What is one other variable you could have changed to make your electromagnet even stronger? Why?
MODIFIED AND INDEPENDENT INQUIRY VERSIONS
All of the Kesler Science inquiry labs come with three different modification levels. Each lab is differentiated using the icons below.
STANDARDS ALIGNMENT
NGSS: MS PS2-3 – Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.
