Science

Grace loves SCIENCE!

She loves looking at things through a

magnifying glass and investigating!

So - I thought she might like playing with a

magnet, also! This is a stong magnet that I bought

for another purpose - but I decided to use it as a

science tool first!

 Here - Grandpa is asking Grace why she thinks some

things stick and some things don't.

 We went around the house and gathered several small objects.

Then Grace would guess whether or not the magnet

would pick them up! The magnet would pick up the scissors by the blades - but it would not pick up the scissors by the handles. This told us that the magnet would pick up the metal but not the plastic part and helped us form ideas to test out.

 We let Grace guess whether the magnet would pick up the various things we had collected. Then we tried to see! For her first time playing with a magnet she did pretty good!

 Yes - the magnet will pick up a musical bell!

 Actually, the magnet liked the bell so much

it didn't want to let go!

 But - the magnet would not pick up a plastic block!

 It picked up a spoon - yet it would not pick up a stainless steel fork! This tells us that some metals are magnetic and some are not.

 It picked up this nut. And it also picked up the bolt that the nut came off of.

And it picked up this skinny screw driver!

Playing with magnets is lots of fun!

And guessing which items the magnet will pick up

and which ones it won't is a very good

beginners science project!

I wonder what we will discover next?