Informal Lesson Plan (6/3)
Electromagnetism Day 1
Objective:
Given rivet, wire, battery and washers, students will construct an electromagnet as measured by
teacher observation and student drawn pictures.
Summative Assessment:
Students will construct an electromagnet.
Students will answer questions about how electric current flows through a coil of wire wrapped
around an iron core to produce magnetism.
Materials:
- Science team list
- 1 rivet (per group)
- 1 150 cm electromagnet wire (per group)
- 1 cm short wire (per group)
- 1 circuit base (per group)
- 1 D-cell battery (per group)
- 1 switch (per group)
- 50 small washers
- 1 compass
- Plastic cups
- Science notebooks
Procedure:
1. Take out science notebooks.
2. Prompt students
o Today, we’re going to try to make a magnet that we can turn on and off.
o Why would this be useful?
 Have you ever seen one of those huge junkyard cranes than can pick up
cars?
 The operator has the ability to turn that magnet at the end on and off so
that he can pick up and drop the cars.
3. Title: Building an Electromagnet
o Question: How do you build a magnet that will turn off and on?
o Materials:
 Rivet
 Electromagnet wire
 Short wire
 D-cell
4.
5.
6.
7.
 Switch
 Washers
o Hypothesis
 Draw a picture
 Think about how you can use these materials to construct a magnet that
you can turn on and off
 Hint: you’re turning the rivet into the magnet.
 Hint: there needs to be electricity somewhere around the rivet in order for
a magnet field to form.
o Results
 If and when your team discovers how to make a magnet that turns on and
off, record what you’ve done.
 Draw a picture
 Label your picture
Dismiss students to work
o Warning!
 Electromagnets use up the electricity inside the D-cells VERY FAST.
 Make sure you open your circuits as soon as you’ve discovered the
solution.
o Call team leaders to get material
o Walk around and observe
o Hints and guidance:
 How can you use the long wire in this experiment?
 You need a magnetic field around the rivet to turn it into a magnet.
Putting just the wire next to it will not create a field that is strong enough
Sharing discoveries
o Who would like to show how their team made a magnet that could turn on and
off?
 What do you notice about their design?
 The wire must be wrapped around the rivet
 The wire must be in a circuit with a switch and D-cell
 The rivet is only a magnet hen the circuit is closed
Conclusion
o Tell students: You’ve discovered an electromagnet.
o Record conclusion:
 We can make an electromagnet by wrapping a piece of iron with insulated
wire to form a coil. While electric current is flowing through the coil, the
piece of steel becomes a temporary magnet.
Discovering where the magnetism comes from:
o Magnetic properties of the wire
 Remove the wire from the rivet
 Reconnect the wire to the D-cell
 Place compass on top of the wire
 Close the switch
 Place compass in different places on the wire and test again
o What did you notice was happening to the needle of the compass?
o What direction did the compass needle point before you closed the circuit?
o What happened when you closed the circuit?
o Why do you think the needle moved?
 Before the wire became a magnet
8. Vocabulary and explanation
o Vocab:
 Electromagnet: a coil of insulated wire wound around a core of iron or
steel which produces a magnetic field when electricity flows through the
wire
 Core: the mass of iron or steel around which a wire is wound
 Coil: wire wound repeatedly around a central core
o Read explanation
**If time:
9. Find the best design
o I noticed that different groups had their wire wound around the rivet differently
o I wonder if one location is better than another.
o To test:
 Your group needs to decide on a consistent number of winds
 Each test must be the same number of winder
 Pick up washers on the head of the rivet
 Count the washers to determine the strength of the magnet
o Record results
 Table: Locations, number of winds, number of washers
10. Closure and set up for part 2
o Now we know how to create electromagnets.
o Do you think all electromagnets need to be the same strength?
o Why/why not?
o How can we make the magnetism stronger or weaker?
Informal Lesson Plan (6/4)
Number of winds on an Electromagnet
Objective:
Given rivet, wire, battery and washers, students will graph the strength of an electromagnet
based on number of winds as measured by student work samples.
Summative Assessment:
Students will construct an electromagnet.
Students will record experiment results and graph results to show relation between number of
winds and strength of magnet.
Materials:
- Science team list
- 1 rivet (per group)
- 1 150 cm electromagnet wire (per group)
- 1 cm short wire (per group)
- 1 circuit base (per group)
- 1 D-cell battery (per group)
- 1 switch (per group)
- 50 small washers (per group)
- Plastic cups
- Science notebooks
- “Winding Electromagnets” sheet
- “Response Sheet-Current Attractions”
Procedure:
11. Take out science notebooks.
12. Prior knowledge/experience
o Yesterday, what did we build?
o What made this rivet turn into a magnet?
o At the end, we talked about how to increase or decrease the strength of the
magnet.
o Some of you had the idea that the number of winds might have an effect on this.
13. Setting up investigation
o How could we test this hypothesis?
14. Title: Winding Electromagnets
o Question: How does the number of winds on an electromagnet core affect the
strength of the magnetism?
o Materials:
 Rivet
 Electromagnet wire
 Short wire
 D-cell
 Switch
 Washers
o Hypothesis
 Write in a sentence how the number of winds in related to the strength of
the magnet.
 I predict that as the number of winds ______________, the strength of the
magnet ___________.
o Results
 Recording sheet: Winding electromagnets
 # of winds: 20, 30, 40
 # of washers lifted:
 You might want to do multiple tests to get more accurate results
15. Dismiss students to work
o Warning!
 Electromagnets use up the electricity inside the D-cells VERY FAST.
 Make sure you open your circuits as soon as you’ve discovered the
solution.
o Call team leaders to get material
o Walk around and observe
o Guiding questions:
 What are you noticing?
 What happens to the number of washers as the number of winds increase?
 What does this tell you?
16. Sharing discoveries
o Who can give me their group numbers?
 What do you notice about their numbers?
 Did your numbers have the same trends?
o What does this tell us?
o What conclusion can we make?
17. Conclusion
o Graph the results
 Graph your own numbers on the bottom portion of your data sheet
 X-axis numbers represent the number of winds used to make an
electromagnet
o Each line represents 2 winds
 Y axis represents number of washers lifted (also intervals of 2)
 Interpreting the graph
 What do you notice?
 What is happening in your graph?
 What does this tell us?
o Recording conclusion:
 In an electromagnet, as the number of winds increase on the core, the
magnetism gets stronger.
Informal Lesson Plan (6/4)
Electromagnetism Day 3
Objective:
Given reading and worksheet, students will explain how an electromagnet is made and how it
works as measured by student work samples
Summative Assessment:
Students will draw and label picture of electromagnets including rivet, wire, D-cell, and coil.
Students will use essential vocabulary to explain how an electricity from the D-cell creates a
magnetic field around the rivet when wrapped by the wire.
Procedure:
1. Prior Knowledge/ Experience
- The last two day’s we have learned about electromagnets
- How do we build one?
- How can we manipulate the strength of one?
2. Reading
- Read Electricity = Magnetism
o What was Oersted’s historic discovery?
 A compass needle rotated when it was close to a wire that had current
flowing through it
o How does an electromagnet work?
 Current flowing through an insulated wire creates a magnetic field.
Winding the wire around the iron core increases the strength of the
magnetic field. The strong magnetic field induces magnetism in the
iron core while the current flows.
o Why did Oersted’s compass needle rotate when he ran electric current through
the thin wire?
 When current flowed through the circuit, the magnetic field around the
wire interacted with the magnetic field of the compass needle. The
interaction rotated the compass needle.
- How Electromagnetism Stopped a War
o What did Robert-Houdin know about science that helped him outsmart the
Algerian leaders?
 Current flowing through a conductor produces a magnetic field.
Wrapping insulated wire around an iron core makes an electromagnet.
The electromagnetism can be turned on and off with a switch.
o How did Robert-Houdin get a wooden chest to stick to his electromagnet?
 The chest had a hidden iron bottom
o What do you think Robert-Houdin did to make his electromagnet so strong?
 He might’ve increased the number of wraps
 He might’ve increased the voltage by using a large number of batteries
3. Adding to vocab
- Electromagnet
o A piece of iron with insulated wire wrapped around it to form a coil. While
electric current is flowing through the coil, the piece of steel becomes a
temporary magnet.
4. Response Sheet- Current Attractions
- Read directions
- Go over questions
- Dismiss to work independently.