This is an updated version of a stations activity I did.
I would do an activity like this BEFORE we started learning the content. The idea is to give them the chance to explore properties of magnets and then the teacher can refer back to the observations. The activity does ask them to draw magnetic field lines; if you are concerned your students won’t be able to understand and won’t ask, just explain the iron filings line up along the field lines.
It doesn’t matter which order students do the stations in, as long as everyone does all of them. I set these up and set a time limit for each station. When I gave the signal everyone switched. Anyone that didn’t finish after a complete circuit had time to go back to any station as needed. If you are worried about students misbehaving when they finish a station early, you could have an activity that they can work on as they go. Anything they can easily go back to would work; for example creating sketches for their vocabulary terms.
Since this activity is a pre-learning activity, when grading, I focus more on their observations and explanations. Also, make sure to give students a chance to ask questions and discuss what happened. One of the biggest reasons activities or labs fall flat is that there is no follow up to help students make connections. You could do this as a whole class discussion OR you could do a Think-Pair-Share, Learning Loops, or any of the other types of activities to get students to mix it up and discuss.
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