Watch closely. You are about to see a magnet brought near a steel paperclip, and then the same magnet brought near a plastic lid. What do you notice? Why would one jump and the other stay exactly where it is?
That invisible pull is what we are hunting today. You will test materials with magnets, sort them into two groups, and then compare how strong different magnets are.
Before you start testing, you need two words for the two piles you will make.
A material is magnetic if a magnet pulls it towards itself, the way it pulls a steel paperclip.
A material is non-magnetic if a magnet does not pull it at all, the way it leaves a plastic lid sitting where it is.
Hands up if you think every metal is magnetic. Hold on to your answer, because you are about to find out.
In your group, test each object with the magnet. Hold the magnet close. Does it pull the object?
Sort every object into two piles: magnetic and non-magnetic. As you sort, start your Investigation Journal page: write each material and whether it was magnetic or non-magnetic. Where the board says sorting grid, it means those rows on your journal page — there is no separate sheet to look for.
Talk about anything that surprises you before we check together on the board.
Six things you did not test. Every one of them is metal.
Before each answer: predict. Hands up for magnetic, hands down for not. Then we find out.
Watch what happens to the rule "metal means magnetic".
All metal. All magnetic?
Two magnets can look alike. Can we prove which pulls harder?
Magnet strength means how strongly a magnet pulls. Our question: Which magnet is strongest?
We change only the magnet. We keep the same: the paperclips, how we start the chain, and how we count.
Paperclip chain method: hang the first paperclip from the magnet, then add more paperclips one by one to the bottom of the chain until the next one will not hold or the whole chain drops. When that happens, count only the paperclips still hanging, and write the number on your Investigation Journal page before you start again. Do this three times for Magnet A, then three times for Magnet B.
After three trials, put the counts in order from smallest to largest and take the middle value. Example: 5, 8, 6 → ordered 5, 6, 8 → middle value 6.
Predict which labelled magnet will win and why, then run your trials.
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