Earth's Magnetic Field

This site provided bythe Salt Lake City School District provides several lessons for students to develop an understanding of how Earth's magnetic field, electromagnets,and magnets work. There are several hands-on activities for students to experience and links for more development of the content strand. These lessons can be adapted to fit the needs of a class or completed as a demonstration. Teachers will need to prepare materials prior to students exploration. This website has several lab experiments to help learners understand how magnets and electromagnets work. All experiments can be completed or teacher can choose the ones that will work in their classroom. This site specifies fifth grade however; lessons will work in eighth grade with slight modifications or with leveled learners.

Weblink address (URL):

Standards & Objectives

Learning objectives:

Describe how the magnetic field of Earth and a magnet are similar.
Compare the magnetic fields of various types of magnets (e.g., bar magnet, disk magnet, horseshoe magnet).
Compare Earth’s magnetic field to the magnetic field of a magnet.
Construct a compass and explain how it works.
Investigate the effects of magnets on the needle of a compass and compare this to the effects of Earth’s magnetic field on the needle of a compass (e.g., magnets effect the needle only at close distances, Earth’s magnetic field affects the needle at great distances, magnets close to a compass overrides the Earth’s effect on the needle).

Lesson Variations

Blooms taxonomy level:

Understanding

References

Contributors:

Rhilda Gastineau

Originator:

Ayers Institute for Learning & Innovation