Middle School NGSS Resource Hub
Three-dimensional breakdowns, phenomenon ideas, misconceptions, and engagement activities for every NGSS middle school standard.
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→Physical ScienceMS-PS1 to MS-PS4 • 19 standards
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Middle School NGSS Standards
Pick any standard. Each page is your full lesson-planning workspace for that standard.
Electric & Magnetic Forces: Asking the Right Questions About What Makes Them Stronger
"Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces."
"Examples of devices that use electric and magnetic forces could include electromagnets, electric motors, or generators. Examples of data could include the effect of the number of turns of wire on the strength of an electromagnet, or the effect of increasing the number or strength of magnets on the speed of an electric motor."
"Assessment about questions that require quantitative answers is limited to proportional reasoning and algebraic thinking."
The three dimensions packed into this standard
Every standard bundles a DCI (the content), a SEP (the science practice), and a CCC (the crosscutting lens). They run in the same task, not in sequence.
"Electric and magnetic (electromagnetic) forces can be attractive or repulsive, and their sizes depend on the magnitudes of the charges, currents, or magnetic strengths involved and on the distances between the interacting objects."
Electric forces and magnetic forces can pull objects together or push them apart, and their strength isn't fixed. It depends on how much charge or current is involved, how strong the magnet is, and how far apart the interacting objects sit. Same force, dialed up or down depending on the conditions. That's the move students are reasoning about.
"Ask questions that can be investigated within the scope of the classroom, outdoor environment, and museums and other public facilities with available resources."
Students aren't running every experiment themselves. They're looking at a phenomenon or a dataset and asking questions that could actually be tested with classroom tools. "What happens if we add more coils?" "What if the magnet is farther away?" The work is interrogating the data, identifying the variables, and writing the question worth investigating.
"Cause and effect relationships may be used to predict phenomena in natural or designed systems."
Every question in this standard is a cause-and-effect question. Change the current, the force changes. Change the distance, the force changes. Students are building a habit: when something gets stronger or weaker, ask what variable was responsible. That habit transfers to every science domain they'll touch after this.
📍 Where This Standard Fits in the K-12 Progression
Use this to plan the year. Knowing what students should already know and what they're heading toward keeps the lesson focused.
Objects can pull or push each other without touching. Magnets attract certain metals and can attract or repel other magnets, even from a small distance away.
Electric & Magnetic Forces: Asking the Right Questions About What Makes Them Stronger
Electric and magnetic forces share one underlying field. Students model that field mathematically, track how energy moves between electric and magnetic forms, and explain how charges and currents create forces at a distance.
🌎 Phenomena for MS-PS2-3
Anchor the lesson in one puzzling phenomenon kids keep coming back to. Use the two investigative phenomena to sharpen specific facets.
The Junkyard Crane
A junkyard crane uses a giant flat disc to lift a stack of car parts. No hook, no chain wrapped around anything. Just the disc, hovering over the metal, and the metal jumps up to meet it. The operator drives the load across the yard, hits a switch, and the whole pile drops. Same disc, totally different behavior depending on whether the switch is on or off. Students will keep circling back to this all week.
"What is that disc actually doing, and what would change the size of the pile it can lift?"
- "Why does the metal fall off the second the operator hits the switch?"
- "Could that disc lift a copper pipe or a soda can?"
- "What would the operator change if they needed to lift a heavier load?"
The Balloon That Won't Fall
A balloon rubbed on hair pressed against a wall. It sticks. No tape, no glue, no hook. Just two surfaces and an invisible pull. Walk away, come back in ten minutes, and the balloon is usually still there. Same kind of cause-and-effect logic as the crane, only in slow motion with charge instead of current. Use this one to sharpen the distance-and-magnitude lens the anchor is pushing on.
"What's pulling the balloon to the wall, and why does it eventually let go?"
- "Does it stick longer if you rub it more?"
- "Would it stick to every surface, or just the wall?"
- "What if the balloon was bigger or smaller? Does size of the balloon matter?"
Magnetism Through a Book
Lay a paperclip on top of a closed textbook. Slide a strong magnet underneath the cover. The paperclip slides across the top of the book, following the magnet you can't see. Add a second textbook on the stack and try again. Sometimes it still works. Add a third, and the paperclip usually stops moving. The force passes through the materials until distance shuts it down.
"Why does the magnet still pull the paperclip through a book, and what stops it from working through three?"
- "Does the kind of book matter, or just the thickness?"
- "Would a steel sheet between the magnet and the paperclip block the pull?"
- "Is the force getting weaker the whole time, or does it just shut off at some point?"
⚠️ Misconceptions Your Students Will Walk In With
These come up almost every year. Knowing them in advance lets you head them off in the first lesson.
"Magnetism only works with metal"
Magnetic forces only attract certain metals, not all of them. Iron, nickel, cobalt, and some of their alloys are ferromagnetic and get pulled by magnets. Aluminum, copper, and gold are metals too, but a regular magnet does nothing to them. The rule isn't "metal versus non-metal," it's "ferromagnetic versus everything else."
"Electricity and magnetism are two totally different things"
They're connected. An electric current flowing through a wire creates a magnetic field. That's why an electromagnet works at all. Pass current through a coiled wire, you get a magnet. Stop the current, the magnetic field collapses. Scientists call the combined idea electromagnetism for that reason.
"Static electricity is just the shock you get from a doorknob"
The shock is the visible part. Static electricity is what happens any time charges build up on a surface without flowing as a current. A balloon rubbed on hair, a sock sticking to a sweater in the dryer, dust gathering on a TV screen. The same force at work in each case. The shock is one specific outcome, not the whole phenomenon.
"A stronger magnet means a longer reach"
Both factors matter independently. A stronger magnet does exert more force at any given distance, but distance still matters a lot. The magnetic force drops off fast as you move away from the magnet. A weak magnet held right against a paperclip beats a strong magnet held a foot away. Strength and distance are separate variables.
🙋 Common Student Questions and How to Respond
These come up almost every time this standard gets taught. Plan a response and you'll keep the lesson focused.
Because the magnetic field is made by the electric current. No current, no field. The iron nail by itself isn't a magnet. The current flowing through the coiled wire wrapped around it is what creates the magnetism. Cut the current, you cut the cause, and the effect vanishes. That's the cleanest demonstration of electromagnetism you'll get.
Each loop of wire creates its own little magnetic field when current runs through it. Wrap more loops around the same nail, and those fields stack on top of each other in the same direction. More loops, more added-up field, stronger pull. The total magnetic strength is the sum of what every loop is contributing.
Rubbing the balloon transfers electrons from your hair to the rubber, so the balloon ends up with extra negative charge. When you press it to the wall, those extra negatives push the electrons in the wall away from the surface, leaving the wall surface slightly positive right under the balloon. Opposite charges attract. The balloon sticks until the charge slowly leaks away.
No. Only a small group of metals respond to ordinary magnets. The big three are iron, nickel, and cobalt. Steel works because it's mostly iron. Aluminum, copper, brass, gold, and silver are all metals, but a magnet won't pick them up. So when you're testing magnetism in class, the rule isn't "is it metal." It's "is it one of the ferromagnetic ones."
📚 Vocabulary Students Need for MS-PS2-3
Twelve terms students need to access this standard. Definitions in plain-English, classroom-ready language.
The push or pull between objects that carry electric charge. Can attract opposite charges or repel like charges.
A property of matter that creates electric forces. Charges come in two kinds, positive and negative.
A buildup of electric charge on a surface, not moving as a current. Causes a balloon to stick to a wall or a sock to cling to a sweater.
To pull toward each other. Opposite charges and ferromagnetic materials near a magnet attract.
To push apart. Like charges repel, and like poles of two magnets repel.
The flow of electric charge through a wire or other conductor. Measured in amps. A current in a coiled wire creates a magnetic field.
The push or pull from a magnet or a current-carrying wire on certain materials or on other magnets.
The region around a magnet (or a current) where its force can act. Stronger close to the magnet, weaker farther away.
The two ends of a magnet, labeled north and south. Like poles repel, opposite poles attract.
A magnet made by running electric current through a coiled wire, usually wrapped around an iron core. Turn the current off, the magnetism stops.
Describes materials that are strongly attracted to magnets. Iron, nickel, cobalt, and certain alloys like steel.
A factor in an investigation that can change. In this standard, variables include current, number of coils, distance, and magnet strength.
💡 Free Engagement Ideas for MS-PS2-3
Build an Electromagnet, Then Vary One Thing
Pairs build a basic electromagnet (insulated wire wrapped around an iron nail, hooked to a D-cell battery). First they get the baseline: count how many paperclips it picks up. Then each pair changes exactly one variable: more coils, less coils, two batteries in series, or a different core material. They record the new paperclip count and compare to baseline. Class collects results on a shared chart.
Balloon Static Charge Distance Test
Students rub a balloon on a wool cloth or their hair, then hold the charged balloon near a small pile of salt or torn paper bits. They measure the distance at which the salt first jumps up to the balloon. Repeat after another 10 seconds of rubbing. Students see distance and charge magnitude both matter, and they generate questions about what else might affect the jump distance.
Magnet-Through-Materials Question Storm
Stations around the room: each has a strong bar magnet on one side of a material (cardboard, aluminum foil, a thin steel plate, a glass plate, a stack of paper) and a paperclip on the other. Students test whether the magnetism passes through, write down the result, and add one question about why this material did or didn't block the force. Closing discussion sorts the questions into testable and not-yet-testable.
Motor Speed Mini-Investigation
Show a small classroom DC motor connected to a single battery. The motor spins at one speed. Add a second battery in series. Speed jumps. Swap to a stronger magnet inside the motor (if your motor allows). Speed changes again. Students don't build the motor, they watch it and generate questions about why each change made the speed go up or down. Connects directly to the clarification statement examples.
📝 Assessment Ideas for MS-PS2-3
Three short tasks that hit all three dimensions. Doable in one class period each.
Students get a list of 8 mixed-quality questions about electromagnets (some testable in class, some too vague, some requiring equipment we don't have). They sort the questions into "investigable here" versus "not investigable here" and explain their reasoning for one in each pile. Targets the SEP directly.
Students get a small data table from an electromagnet investigation showing paperclip pickup for 10, 20, 30, and 40 coils. They write the cause-and-effect statement the data supports, then write a follow-up question they'd want investigated next. Bonus: identify a variable that was held constant in the data.
Students are shown a short video of a strong magnet attracting a steel can across a desk. They write three questions about what factors affect the strength of the attraction, each one naming a specific variable to change. For each question, they predict the cause-and-effect relationship. No experiment required.
🎯 What Proficient Student Work Looks Like
Same prompt, three student responses at different proficiency levels. Use as anchor papers when scoring.
"Look at the data table showing how many paperclips an electromagnet picked up at 10, 20, 30, and 40 coils. Write a cause-and-effect statement the data supports, then ask two follow-up questions about what else might affect the electromagnet's strength."
- A specific claim backed by data, observation, or model
- Use of standard-specific vocabulary in context
- Connection between the visible and the underlying explanation
- A question they're still wondering about (curiosity stays alive)
When you add more coils the electromagnet gets stronger. The data shows that 40 coils picked up more paperclips than 10. My questions are: does the battery matter? What about the nail?
Identifies the pattern but stops short of a cause-and-effect statement. Follow-up questions name variables but don't specify what to change or predict an outcome. Reasoning is on the right track but underdeveloped.
The data shows that as the number of coils increased, the electromagnet picked up more paperclips. Cause: more coils. Effect: stronger magnetic force. My follow-up questions are: (1) If we use two batteries instead of one, will the electromagnet pick up more paperclips? (2) If we change the nail to an aluminum one instead of iron, will the electromagnet still work at all? I think more batteries would make it stronger because more current would flow through the wire.
States a clear cause-and-effect statement using data. Both follow-up questions name a specific variable and a measurable outcome. Includes a prediction backed by an idea about the mechanism. Hits exactly what the standard is targeting.
The data shows a cause-and-effect relationship: as the number of coils increased from 10 to 40, the number of paperclips picked up also increased. The cause is the number of coils, the effect is the strength of the magnetic force. Each coil adds its own magnetic field, so more coils means more added-up field. My follow-up questions: (1) If we double the current by adding a second D-cell battery in series, will the paperclip count double too, or will it just go up by some amount? This would tell us whether the relationship is proportional. (2) If we replace the iron nail with an aluminum one, will the electromagnet still pick up paperclips at all? I predict it won't, because aluminum isn't ferromagnetic, so even with the same current and coils, there's no core to magnetize.
Cause-and-effect statement names the mechanism, not just the pattern. First follow-up question probes whether the relationship is proportional, going beyond "more equals more." Second question targets a different factor (core material) and includes a science-grounded prediction. This is the kind of question-writing the standard is built to develop.