NGSS HS-PS2-5
The Standard
Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that an electric current can produce a magnetic field and that a changing magnetic field can produce an electric current.
Next Generation Science Standards
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students plan and carry out tests using wires, coils, batteries, magnets, compasses, or meters. They collect observations showing how current affects a compass and how magnet motion affects a meter reading. They identify variables, controls, and evidence that support each claim.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can build a current-carrying coil near a compass and move a magnet near a coil connected to a meter. They change one variable, record repeatable results, and explain why needle movement is evidence. They recognize that induction requires a changing field, not a stationary magnet.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often think any nearby magnet creates current, even when it is still. They may confuse electric current with magnetic field, or assume a wire must touch a magnet. Some expect a stronger result without considering coil turns, motion speed, current size, or direction.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Using a battery, switch, coil, compass, bar magnet, and meter, sketch two tests for the two effects. Label what changes, what is measured, and what result would count as evidence.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Wrap wire around an iron nail, connect a battery briefly, and compare compass deflection with the circuit open and closed.
Ask students to explain why a meter responds when a magnet moves through a coil but not when the magnet rests inside.
Run a card sort matching setup changes, such as reversing current or magnet motion, to predicted compass or meter directions.
Demonstrate a hand-crank flashlight, then have students trace how turning the handle leads to current and light.
Free download
Printable HS-PS2-5 Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to HS-PS2-5, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.
Download the worksheetLearning progression
Where This Standard Sits
See the whole path on the Physical Science progression map.
Before This Standard
If students are struggling here, check these first.
- MS-PS2-3
Understanding how electric and magnetic force strength depends on factors supports investigating current produced magnetic fields and induction.
- MS-PS2-5
Understanding fields as invisible agents of noncontact forces supports explaining magnetic fields from currents and induced currents from changing fields.
- MS-PS2-4
Understanding forces as field-based interactions at a distance supports investigating magnetic effects of currents and changing fields.
Keep exploring
Related Standards
- 4-PS3-2
Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
- 1-PS4-1
Plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make sound and that sound can make materials vibrate.
- HS-PS1-3
Plan and conduct an investigation to gather evidence to compare the structure of substances at the bulk scale to infer the strength of electrical forces between...
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