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Physical Science Kit Resources Vancouver School District
In Magnets and Motors, students build on the knowledge they
gained in the STC Electric Circuits unit by exploring the properties
of magnets and the magnetic properties of electric currents.
The unit includes information on the historical development of
scientists' understanding of the use of magnetism, electricity,
and electromagnetism. Students begin by studying magnets and making a compass. They then investigate the relationship between magnetism and electricity, as they explore the characteristics of switches and circuits. Finally, the students experiment with three different motors. Applying their learning and experience, they dismantle, experiment with, and reassemble a manufactured motor. By observing various properties of magnets and electricity,
you'll help students begin to understand the diversity of its
uses and develop the appropriate appreciation of it in the environment
around them. With the activities in Magnets and Motors, you'll
encourage your students to observe and detail This is a very exciting unit for young students because they have a chance to observe, touch, test, analyze, build models and see science in action as they · Interpreting test results, make a simple compass,
and to draw conclusions about They will be quite energized while working with it, but also occasionally confused. A certain amount of anxiety is useful at times; it can cause students to become actively engaged in what they are doing and to come up with creative questions. Some of their questions will be puzzlers; after all, electricity and magnetism are puzzling phenomena which scientists continue to study. The teacher will need to gauge carefully how to respond to these questions. Often, the most effective response is to encourage children to find out more for themselves through additional experimentation or by seeking out additional information in science trade books.
Essential Lessons: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 In doing each of the essential lessons, all content and performance standards will be met for the Washington State EALR's and Benchmarks. The lessons can be done in clusters or combined grouping. To ease Kit usage the following lessons should be done in the above sequence. The instructional approach to enhance student inquiry and discovery is to combine the lessons in clusters (2-4), (5-7), 10, (12-14), and then culminate the unit with final project assessment. The grayed lessons should be done if time is available. This will assure that you will be able to accommodate all EALR and WASL requirements. If time is not available the grayed lessons could be eliminated, but this means that you will need to assure that the remaining lessons are done in breadth and depth. The Appendices include many suggestions for post-unit assessments. They also provide information about preparing materials and constructing simple motors. The Bibliography has suggestions of books that will help students see how discoveries in magnets fit into the history of magnetism, as well as books that will help students delve further into the scientific and technological aspects of magnets and motors.
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What makes your refrigerator
door stay closed? That seems like a silly question, but we do
take magnets for granted. There are many other important uses
for magnets--telephones, televisions and video recorders, loudspeakers,
electric motors to run everything from the largest to the smallest
electric appliance, and even gasoline-powered automobiles (the
starter motor, alternator, windshield wiper motor, and transformer
all rely on magnetism!). The world would be a very different
place if magnetism--and the electricity it allows us to produce--had
never been investigated scientifically.