Magnet Inquiry Learning

This term our inquiry-based learning focus was Magnets, Forces, and Electricity.

My current school follows the 5 e's in inquiry-based learning: engage, explore, explain, evaluate, and extend.

For engage, the junior school spent a week on each area e.g. week one: electricity. We completed a 25 minute rotation.

For electricity, I asked the students to try and make the light bulb glow. The students had to explore all the elements that make a lightbulb glow. At the end, the students asked questions about what they had explored. Why does the lightbulb glow when everything is connected?

For forces, I asked the students to drop various objects from the top of the playground and slide. The key idea was to understand why some objects dropped faster and why they all dropped down. At the end the students asked questions about what they had explored and took their ideas back to their classroom teacher.

For magnets, I asked the students to explore how magnets work in water. The key idea was to understand what magnets are attracted to, think about if and why they work in water, and why they work through the plastic container. At the end the students asked questions about what they had explored and took their ideas back to their classroom teacher.

For explore, my class split into electricity and magnets.
With the magnet group, we explored what attracts to magnets and what they reply and why. This was the introduction to the scientific vocab too. I encouraged the students to use attract rather than stick, and repel rather than not sticking or going away from.
We displayed our thinking into a venn diagram.

We also played a game where the students were given a sticker with N or S (North pole, south pole). When the teacher said attract, they had to find another person with the opposite pole to attract with (linking arms). When the teacher said repel, they had to find another person with the same pole to repel with (standing back to back).

I used hand gestures with the students to gain understanding about attract and repel. Students put their hands together and moved them apart for repel. Students held their hands wide and brought them together for attract.

For explore and explain, we decided to create a maths game using magnets. Students made the game using the knowledge they had collected. For example, students knew that strong magnets could work through cardboard, but what they wanted the magnet to attract to had to be made of metal. 

For evaluate and extend, the students created iMovies to show their new key understandings. The iMovies included photos and footage of their inquiry learning from beginning to end. At the end, the students explained their new knowledge. These iMovies were shared to another class in the school on inquiry celebration day in week 10. Parents and whanau were invited to come along.

I hope this post has given you some ideas about your next inquiry!