Concepts of Magnets and Motors
Teachers want to keep these ideas in mind throughout the unit to help guide instruction and to emphasize with learners.
- Magnets attract and repel each other; this attracting and repelling can be used to cause motion.
- A compass can be constructed by suspending a magnet so that it is free to rotate.
- A compass will move in response to a magnet that is placed near it.
- An electric current moving through a wire produces magnetism; a coil of copper wire conducting an electric current becomes an electromagnet.
- A steel bolt, placed inside a coil of wire conducting an electric current, increases the strength of the electromagnet.
- A simple motor can be made from an electromagnet and a rotating armature.
- An electric current can be generated by placing a rotating coil of wire near a magnet.
Inquiry Skills
Inquiry skills are those skills students use to make sense of their science investigations. They tell what the students will actually be doing in science. The Inquiry Skills for Magnets and Motors are:
Classify
Collaborate
Compare
Experiment
Measure
Predict
Question
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Collect Data
Communicate
Control variables
Hypothesize
Interpret data
Observe
Quantify
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