Are You Ready to Learn About…

Magnetism?

A Webquest designed for fifth graders in Ms. Buswell’s class at Mallett’s Bay School

Ms. Buswell worked all weekend putting together a lesson on magnetism. She even had trouble getting to sleep last night because she was just so excited to teach it to your class…

Unfortunately, Ms. Buswell had a very bad morning. For some strange reason, her alarm didn’t go off so when she finally woke up, she had to hurry to get to school on time. She ran out the door without even eating breakfast! Once she pulled in the parking lot at Mallet’s Bay School, she reached into the backseat to get her bag only to realize that it felt awfully light.

“Uh oh” she said aloud. “I forgot the magnetism lesson. What in the world am I going to do?”

Ms. Buswell ran inside and into the classroom just as the bell rang. She stood at her desk looking very upset until she saw you and had one of her brilliant ideas.

Ms. Buswell knows what a knowledgeable and dependable fifth grader you are so… she’s asked you to spend the day in the computer lab researching magnetism. She’d like you to find only what you think is the most important information and bring it back to her. You’ll be her special teaching assistant this afternoon when you present it to the class.

Make sure the websites you find are interesting and interactive!

And remember, your classmates know very little about magnetism so make sure you are thoughtful about the information you gather.

This is your challenge, but only if you choose to accept it…

Okay, you say? You’ll try it? Great! Here’s your mission…Good luck!

1. What are magnets?

2. What are some places where magnets stick?

3. You know a magnet is surrounded by a magnetic field, but what does that mean?

4. What are magnetic poles?

5. What does a compass measure?

6. Is Earth’s magnetic poles the same as the geographic pole?

Now this may seem like a big task and it is, but do your best. Ms. Buswell appreciates your willingness and hard work.

And you might even get some extra points if you find extra facts about magnetism.

These websites might help you out a bit…Some of them are very fun; you could think about having your classmates do them on their own.

www.brainpop.com/science/forces/magnetism

http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/iconmagnetism.html

http://www.science-tech.nmstc.ca/english/schoolzone/Info_Magnets.cfm

Try out these search engines: www.Yahooligans.com

www.Google.com

www.Ajkids.com

Kid’s Click:

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/

These words might help you when you’re searching for information… The image “http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/ligans/hlp3.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.