This week, the 8th grade science classes experiments with invisible forces by using magnets. They sought out to answer their unit question: "What forces keep parts of our solar system together and how can we use this knowledge to plot a telescope route through space?"
At the first station, the students were asked to take two magnets and manipulate them in different ways, and then, record their observations. They studied the objects, grouped them based on what they knew about the materials, and predicted which ones would be attracted to a magnet.
They then discussed why orienting the magnets in different ways affected how they moved and if all objects have "invisible forces" acting on them.
At the second station, they tested the strength of an invisible force by tying one end of a thread to a paper clip, the other end to a table, and holding the magnet above the paper clip. They tried to lift the paper clip up without letting them touch and reflected on how this was possible.
The third station allowed students to explore invisible fields. Students laid a plastic bag on a table and shook it back and forth until there was a thin layer of filings on top of the index card in the bag. Then, they laid the paper clip at the other end of the desk and lifted up the bag right over the paper clip.
After this station, the students discussed why the iron filings allowed them to see the pattern of the field and how they differ from the other scenarios. They also discussed where they saw the most filings since that is where the field was the strongest.
The last station was creating invisible fields. Students tightly wrapped wire around a nail and tried to pick up paperclips. They then stripped an inch of insulation off each end of the wire and hooked the wire to one battery at both ends. Like before, they tried to pick up the paperclips but with the wire-wrapped nail and recorded their observations including how many nails they picked up.
Experimenting with the different magnet scenarios was a fantastic way for the 8th graders to get a better understanding of how invisible forces work.
In this task, the students focused on using cause and effect relationships to predict events and using systems and system models to represent system interactions.
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