Station one:

Magnetic fields experiment

Experiment adapted and images retrieved from:
Science by email. (2014). Magnetic fields. Retrieved from
http://www.csiro.au/helix/sciencemail/activities/magnets.html

Equipment/ resources
needed:
1x Strong magnet- a bar
magnet or a horseshoe
magnet.
2 x books roughly the
same width as the
magnet.
1x Fine steel wool, with
no soap.
Rubber gloves
A piece of paper
1x old pair of scissors
Vegetable oil or baby oil
1x small bottle or jar,
cleaned and dried

Part 1.

What to do:

1.Put the two books flat on the table with the

magnet between them.
2.Lay the paper on top. It should lie flat with the
magnet underneath it.
3.Put the rubber gloves on.
4.Steel wool normally comes wound up in a roll.
Unroll the first few centimetres, so you
have a lot of strands all going the same
way.
5.Hold the steel wool over the paper.
6.Using the scissors, cut across the strands so
the last millimetre or so gets cut off and
falls to the paper.
7.Keep cutting away at the steel wool so you
get a pile of fine steel particles on the
paper. Move the steel wool around so it
falls all over the paper.
8.
Record what is happening to the steel
wool and why you think it is happening.

Part 2.
9.
10.

11.
12.
13.
14.

Keep the gloves on.

Pick up the paper by the ends and use it
to funnel the steel particles into the bottle.
Fill the bottle with oil and put the lid on it.
Shake the bottle so the steel wool swirls
around.
Place your magnet next to the bottle and
move it around.
Record what happened by writing it down
and with an Ipad video record what
happens.

Station 1:
Observation recording sheet

Name: ___________________________________________________________

Part one:
When I put the steel wool on the piece of paper

It happen because

Sketch what you saw below:

Part two:
When I moved the magnet around on the bottle