Motor+Mania

This is an introduction to understand how electromagnets and circuits work together to produce a motor capable of doing work. Your child will participate in all activities, record their observations, and bring a working motor and all other lab materials home at the end of the second day. Through hands-on investigation the kids will build and develop 5 big ideas ideas about electricity, magnetism, and motors. Those ideas are: 1. We start by creating magnets in the first lab through induction, in this case, rubbing a permanent magnet over an iron nail to create a magnetic field. 2. From there the kids will discover that when an electric current flows through a wire it produces a magnetic field around that wire, which the kids will detect and map using a compass. 3. Building on that idea we construct electromagnets from wire and a large nail. As electricity passes through that electromagnet the magnetic field surrounding it is also detectable using a compass. 4. Through experimentation the kids will discover that when the electric current flowing through the electromagnet is reversed, the magnetic field around the electromagnet is also reversed. This idea is reinforced using a commercially built motor with a propeller. 5. By incorporating these ideas into a complete circuit, the kids will build a working motor on an inverted cup using paperclips, a battery, magnets, and the knowledge that they have acquired. For the truly inspired we have included a link to a more complex homemade motor so that the kids can further their knowledge after the class is complete.