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magnets

indoor project

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motion

at-home learning

A bunch of magnetic fields working together can create all kinds of surprising motion. Try building this simple pendulum and see what happens when you let magnets push each other around!

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Start by creating a pyramid shaped base out of dowels for your magnetic experiment. Paint each dowel a different color to make your pyramid colorful! Wait for them to dry before you move on to the next step. 

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Create the base of the pyramid by overlapping three dowels and securing a rubber band around each overlapping end. 

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Connect three more dowels to form the pyramid.

Secure each dowel end to the corners of the base first. Then, tie the three dowels together at the top to create a pyramid shape.

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Tie string connecting the circular magnet to the top of the pyramid. Secure the magnet to the string with clear tape. Now that your structure is built, let's experiment with the rectangular magnets!

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Experiment 1: Place three magnets at the center points of each dowel at the base. Gently lift and release the circular magnet to watch it go! It will bounce back and forth between the three magnetic fields as it encounters different polarities. Magnets have a north pole and south pole - it can attract as well as repel other magnets! See what happens when you move around the rectangular magnets! How will the circular magnet swing?

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Experiment 2: Have you ever wanted to have super powers that enabled you to move something without touching it? Well here is your chance! Magnets have a strong, attractive force when a north and south pole are close to each other. Place a rectangular magnet under your suspended circular magnet. Make sure the circular magnet will attract the rectangular magnet. If the circular and rectangular magnets are too far apart, adjust the hanging circular magnet. Gently move the rectangular magnet(s) around and watch your circular magnet follow!

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Experiment 3: Give your magnet the shivers by placing 1-2 rectangular magnet(s) under the suspended circular magnet. Make sure the top of the rectangular magnet facing up and the bottom of the circular magnet repels each other. Gently lift the circular magnet to release it from its magnetic field and let it swing! It will quickly be caught right back in its magnetic field as it moves towards the rectangular magnet(s).

dowels (6)

rubber bands

rectangular magnets (3)

circular magnet

string

clear tape

paint (optional)

Magnetic Experiment

game

indoor game

fish

homemade craft

My kids love games, which is a great way to trick them into learning something. This classic fishing game not only works on their motor skills as they navigate around the "pond" of fish, but it can be used for letter learning, color matching, math, and much more.Learn more about water and the amazing creatures that live under the sea with the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/professions-marine-biologist-project-kit/5457" target="_self">Marine Biologist Starter Kit</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Start by gathering up supplies. We used wooden sticks we had on hand from another project, but the thicker the stick, the more sturdy the fishing pole will be. We also used fold-over magnets so they would be easy to tie on. You could glue a magnet on if you needed to. (Make sure your child is old enough to know not to swallow magnets.) 

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First we cut out fish from the construction paper.

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Then the kids decorated the fish to their liking. This would also be the point where you could add numbers, letters, words, or anything else you want your kids to learn as they fish. 

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To make the fishing pole, we tied a string to the wooden dowel then taped around the string a few times. Then we tied on a magnet to the other end of the string.  

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To make the fish "catchable," we added paper clips to each fish. 

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We spread the fish out on the ground and the kids went fishing. I gave them challenges ("How many blue fish can you catch?") and they navigated around the pool to catch the right fish. 

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My five-year-old said this game was way better than real fishing. I agreed, and we spent the afternoon fishing in the living room. 

Construction Paper

stick

magnet 

paper clips (many)

Scissors

Markers

Tape

Magnetic Fishing Game

electronics

battery

Use the power of electromagnetism to create your own spinning sculpture!&nbsp;Explore more spintastic artistic wonders with a <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/spin-art-machine-project-kit/2078" target="_self">Spin Art Machine </a>from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>! Engineer a motorized spinning platform, then load your machine with paper and drip paint to make it splatter.

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Stack your battery on top of your neodymium magnets with the flat side of the battery on the magnets.

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Cut a piece of magnet
wire about&nbsp;30 cm in length. Then&nbsp;bend the wire in half
to make a “V.” Keeping the very bottom of the "V" in place,&nbsp;mold&nbsp;the wire into a rectangle. The sides should be about 5 cm.&nbsp;

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Check to make sure the wire rectangle fits around the batter. You might need to adjust the&nbsp;the
wire so that
one end touches the
magnets at the bottom. Cut the wire as needed!

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Balance the "V" in the wire&nbsp;on top of the battery and see if it spins!&nbsp;

Getting the wire to
balance can take a few
tries—keep at it!

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Show off your spinning sculptures!

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Decorate! Make decorations for your spinning sculpture. Symmetrical decorations work best.

Don’t forget to
disconnect the wire.
The battery and wire
can get hot!

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These spinning sculptures are an example of homopolar motors. Homopolar motors are a type of motor that is powered by something called a Lorentz Force. 
The Lorentz Force occurs when an electric force (the electricity running through the copper wire) meets a magnetic force (the magnets). The collision of these two forces causes your sculpture to spin!
Watch <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/diy/videos/how-to-make-a-spinning-homopolar-motor-sculpture" target="_blank">this video</a> to learn more.&nbsp;

Wiggle Eye Set

Double-Sided Sticky Foam Set

AA Battery

Neodymium Magnets

Copper Wire

Paper

Spinning Sculptures

slime

chemistry

Pull together a batch of&nbsp;magnetic slime! Polymers are really big molecules, made up of lots and lots of smaller molecules joined together. They can make materials bouncy like a rubber ball, stiff like a plastic toy, or stretchy like a piece of gum. One great way to play around with polymers -- and to do some hands-on experimentation with chemistry in general -- is to make your own slime. In this experiment, we uplevel your standard green goo to jet-black magnetic slime that will magically move and dance without you even touching it! Follow along below or in our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BH7II5S9gk">How to Make Magnetic Slime</a>&nbsp;video tutorial!Want to learn more about chemistry without the hassle of gathering materials? Explore the science of thermochromism with <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/color-changing-slime-project-kit/2948" target="_self">Color Changing Slime</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Add a tablespoon of iron oxide powder into your disposable cup or bowl. 

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Add 2 tablespoons of liquid starch. Use a craft  stick to mix the ingredients until the liquid is uniform and smooth.

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Add 2 tablespoons of white glue and stir your mixture until you get an even consistency. You may need to scrape the mixture off your craft stick periodically to keep mixing.

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At this point, we put on our gloves as things start to get a little messy! Scoop out the black slime and knead it with your hands. It should start to dry as you do so. Keep kneading until your slime is smooth and dry. If needed, you can gently dab it on a paper towel to help with the drying process.

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Your slime should now be safe to handle without getting your hands black! Take your magnets and see how they interact with the slime.Try stretching out a long tendril of slime. Place the magnets near the slime and watch as the slime slowly creeps over to be closer to the magnet.

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For some extra experimentation, try varying your ratio of iron oxide to glue to liquid starch and observe the results. Depending on your ratio, the slime can either be very thick or thin and it will interact differently with the magnets. What combination worked the best for you?

liquid starch

Glue

iron oxide powder

craft sticks

tablespoon

disposable cups

paper towel (optional)

gloves (optional)

Magnetic Slime

magic tricks

easy experiment

quick experiment

food science

food play

Pull a couple of cereal boxes from the shelf and test their iron content with this simple experiment. It's fun to see your breakfast whiz across the surface of milk using a magnet!Want to explore more kitchen science experiments? Explore the tastier side of learning with <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/science-of-cooking-ice-cream-project-kit/5461" target="_self">Science of Cooking: Ice Cream</a> from the<a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self"> KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Bring the magnet close to the cereal (without touching it!) and see if you can start moving the pieces! If there is enough iron in the cereal and your magnets are strong enough, you will be able to move the cereal pieces around the bowl!
 
 Do certain types of cereal move faster than others when chasing the magnet? You can conduct this experiment many times to see which cereals have a high iron content and which ones don't.&nbsp;

Be very careful with these magnets and keep them away from small children! In this experiment, adults should handle the magnets as they can be very dangerous if swallowed or handled improperly.

What's going on?
 This is a simple experiment that demonstrates magnetic attraction, a force that pulls on things from a distance. Magnets, like your neodymium magnet, are made of a special alloy - or mixture - of three types of metal (neodymium, boron, and iron), which allows them to create a magnetic field. This magnetic field pulls on other magnets and metals, like the iron in your cereal (many breakfast cereals have iron added to make them more nutritious). But what’s a magnetic field? People have been asking this question for centuries, but we still don’t really know what a magnetic field is made of. We do know, though, that magnetic fields are invisible - and lots of fun to play around with! Explore some more by creating a solution of crushed up cereal in liquid.

bowl

milk

cereal (with high iron content)  (We used cereals that had over 150% DV iron content per 100 g serving)

neodymium magnets (1)

Magnetic Cereal

engineering

train

transportation

STEM

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Take one end of the copper wire and tape it to the dowel. Begin winding the copper into a coil, making sure the coils are as tightly packed as possible but do not overlap.

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Keep winding until you have created a coil that's at least 5 inches long.

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Remove the coil from the dowel, and stretch it out just enough so that each winding on the coil doesn't touch the one next to it.  

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Make two stacks of 3 neodymium magnets. Orient the stacks so they repel each other, and stick one stack to each side of the battery.&nbsp;

This project won't work with regular magnets like you'd use on a noteboard. We ordered these online.

Be very careful with these magnets and keep them away from small children! They can be very dangerous if swallowed.

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Slide your train into the copper coil. It should zip down the coil and out the other side! If your train doesn't move, try flipping the train around. If it still doesn't work, try flipping one of the stacks of batteries around.Experiment by adding or subtracting the number of magnets, or making a longer coil. With a long enough copper coil, you'll be able to make a circle that the train zips around continuously!What's going on?Try this. Grab a couple of fridge magnets and flip them so they repel each other. If you place one on a table and bring the other one close, the magnet on the table will slide away. That same magnetic push is what moves your train!How? Well, placing the battery inside the coil of wire creates an electrical circuit. (In fact, it creates a short circuit, which is why the battery burns out so quickly in this experiment.)And here's the part where the connection between electricity and magnetism becomes important. An electric current creates a magnetic field. In fact, a coil of wire like you made here creates a magnetic field very similar to the magnetic field of a plain old bar magnet. Now, the neodymium magnets have their own magnetic field, and they're sitting right in the middle of the wire's magnetic field. And just like a couple of fridge magnets, those magnetic fields interact with each other. That's where the push that propels your train comes from. The neodymium magnets get pushed along by the magnetic field of the coil of wire. 

20 Gauge Copper Wire

aaa battery

6 neodymium (12 mm diameter)

wooden dowels (1/2 inch diameter)

Electromagnetic Train

April Fool’s Day

experiment

optical illusions

April Fool's Day is a great excuse play a few harmless jokes, have a few laughs, and play a prank on another jokester.. It can also, however, be a great excuse to try out some awesome new science! Try combining your laughs with some learning this year with this fun and easy magnet trick.

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Tape one neodymium magnet to the center of your dollar bill.

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Tape one end of your string to the other neodymium magnet.

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Place your dollar bill on the table so the magnet is hidden underneath it. Place the other magnet with the string underneath the table, so it attracts the magnet and bill above the table. Sit at either the opposite end of the table, or underneath it. When someone comes to grab the dollar bill, give your string a gentle pull and the dollar bill jump out of their reach! 

1 dollar bill

table

The Moving Dollar Trick

Saint Patrick's Day

This simple and quick little project will bring a little magnetic decoration to your fridge, just in time for St. Patrick's Day.

Panda Crate

Sprout: Koala Crate

Labs: Kiwi Crate

World: Atlas Crate

Studio: Doodle Crate

Labs: Tinker Crate

Studio: Maker Crate

Labs: Eureka Crate

18 easy magnets projects for kids

Screen-free fun!