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.

Magnets and Motors is a unit of 16 lessons about magnetism and electricity designed for 6th graders. It mirrors the historical development of our understanding and use of magnetism, electricity, and electromagnetism. The unit progresses through these phenomena in the same order that people first learned about them--magnets and compasses, electricity from batteries, then electromagnetism (electromagnets, motors, and generators). Opportunities are taken to integrate the science activities with other subjects such as language arts, mathematics, history, and geography.

Lesson 1 provides opportunities for students to take part in a preassessment brainstorming session and write and talk about what they know already about magnets and motors. Students also become familiar with the Magnets and Motors Student Activity Book and with keeping a student notebook.

In Lessons 2 through 6, students experiment with magnets and with a compass that they have made. They discover (or rediscover) the properties of magnets, learn a simple problem-solving technique, manipulate materials to build a working device, and test their own hypotheses. They also develop and practice language, classification, and manipulative skills.

Students observe and investigate magnetism’s connection with electricity in Lessons 7 through 11. They explore the characteristics of a switch, simple circuits, and electromagnets, then work in teams to design and conduct an experiment with electromagnets and report their findings to their peers. In the process, they learn to evaluate alternatives, work with others, and present their ideas to a group.

In Lessons 12 through 15, students experiment with three different electric motors, including one they make. They practice the troubleshooting and manipulative skills acquired in earlier lessons and observe phenomena that will help them to make connections between electricity and magnetism. Based on their own experiences, they develop an understanding of how a motor works.

Lesson 16 enables students to learn how to produce electricity with an electric generator (a motor used "backwards"). With the electricity they generate, students light a bulb and make a motor turn.

This is an exciting unit for students. 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.