In this lab, the 8th grade studied and observed magnetic properties. This was a two part lab where students used materials such as magnetics, paperclips, compasses and more to help them achieve an understanding of the properties.

In part one of the lab, students put a compass down on the lab table with a meter stick lined up so the compass was at 0 centimeters. Next students took a few different magnets and one at a time would place a magnet on the opposite end of the meterstick. After, the students slowly moved the magnets along the meterstick, slowly inching it closer to the compass. Since compasses operate using the Earths magnetic field to point north, our objective was to see how far away the magnet could be from the compass until it starts to change the compass reading. This was done with several types of magnets, in addition, students flipped magnets around to see if the opposite side would have as strong of an effect on the compasses. 

For the second part of the lab, a paperclip was hanging off the side of the lab tables which was tied to a meterstick. On the floor beneath the hanging paperclip there was a piece of paper with an “X” marked on it. Next, another meterstick was placed by the “X” on the ground with the “0 cms” next to the “X.” Once again, students used different magnets and would record the distance of the magnet from the “X” once they saw the paperclip either start to repel or attract to the magnet. In addition, after these trials were completed, students put barriers (all ranging from different materials like aluminum, wood, plastic and iron) in between the paperclip and magnet to see if the magnetism from the magnet would still affect the paperclip on the other side.  Overall, students had a blast with the magnets and furthered their understanding of magnetic properties