Florida SC.4.P.8.4
The Standard
Investigate and describe that magnets can attract magnetic materials and attract and repel other magnets.
Florida Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Science
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students test objects to find which ones a magnet attracts. They also test pairs of magnet poles, observe attraction and repulsion, and describe the pattern.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students use test results to sort objects as magnetic or not magnetic. They can show that unlike poles attract, like poles repel, and magnets can pull without touching.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think magnets attract every metal, including aluminum and copper. They may think either end of one magnet attracts either end of another. Some confuse magnetic attraction with objects sticking through glue or static electricity.
How to Assess It
- On an exit ticket, draw an iron nail, an aluminum can tab, and two pairs of labeled magnet poles. Ask students to predict each interaction and explain one prediction.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Set up trays with magnets, coins, nails, foil, wood, and plastic, then have students test and chart each object's response.
Ask students to write why two magnets sometimes move together and sometimes move apart without touching.
Play a pole matching game where students hold N or S cards and step together for attraction or apart for repulsion.
Inspect a magnetic cabinet latch and identify the magnet, the attracted material, and the job the magnetic force performs.
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Printable SC.4.P.8.4 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to SC.4.P.8.4, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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Related Standards
- SC.2.P.13.2
Demonstrate that magnets can be used to make some things move without touching them.
- SC.2.P.8.1
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- SC.6.P.13.1
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- SC.5.P.10.3
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