Last week, I had a great discussion with my teammates and we came up with a great experiment to perform in front of high school students. We decided to have an introduction about magnetism, which is a force of attraction or repulsion that acts at a distance. We will also explain that it is due to a concept called magnetic field, which is caused by moving electrically charged particles. Our introduction also includes electromagnetic induction. According to Wikipedia, it is the production of a potential difference (voltage) across a conductor when it is exposed to a varying magnetic field. We want the students to be engaged in the experiment. We will make a competition and divide the class into two groups. We will guide the youth to make their own magnets using copper wires and a piece of metal. Their task is to pick up as many paperclips as they can.
This type of competition will generate interest and excitement for the topic covered. We would like the students to use a team approach rather than individual approach. As far as I’m concerned, I think that the competition will be appropriate because the winner will have some candies. So, we can see rivalry between the two teams.
The purpose of the experiment is to make the young apprentices practice what they just learned from us and get an idea how energy can be generated. Additionally, the students will have some useful information about sustainability, energy, and technology.