Ocean Experiment for Teaching Kids How Magnets Work

Children are always asking the question, “How do magnets work?” This is an easy Ocean experiment for teaching your children all about magnets. A few simple supplies you already have on hand make this a great functional science lesson in any classroom.

The next time your kids pose the question of, “How do magnets work?” you can readily pull these supplies out for a fun and easy experiment that they will love. You will easily be able to teach the basic concepts of how magnets push and pull without struggle with this Ocean Experiment for Teaching Kids How Magnets Work.

Ocean Experiment for Kids: How Do Magnets Work?

Supplies Needed:

shoe box (without the lid)
paper
markers
scissors
large and small paper clips
tape
thread
magnets

Note: Refrigerator magnets usually don’t work for this project. You need a stronger magnet you can buy at the hardware store, toy store, or online.

Directions:

1. Use paper and markers to draw your ocean animals and plants. Cut out your ocean plants and animals. Tape the plants onto the box as desired.

Ocean Experiment for Teaching Kids How Magnets Work- color and cut ocean animals

2. Cut a piece of thread about 5″ longer than the height of the box. Attach one paperclip and one piece of thread onto the ocean animal. Hold the animal inside the box almost touching the top. Tape the thread to the bottom of the box.

3. Lay a magnet on top of the box, directly above the animal. Hold the animal near the magnet and let go. The animal should hover by itself.

4. If your magnets are not strong enough, place one on top of the box and one just inside so the two attract (as shown).

Move the ocean animals away from the magnet or shorten the thread. What happens?

Concept Demonstrated for How Magnets Work:

Magnets push and pull on each other and attract some metals. Iron and steel attract magnets. Paper clips are made from steel and contain iron. This makes them ideal for this project.

Learning Objective for How Magnets Work:

The magnet and the paper clip attract. The thread stops the paper clip from being pulled flat against the magnet. The stronger the magnet, the stronger the attraction between the magnet and paper clip and the farther apart you can move the paperclip and still make it hover inside the box.

This is fun and easy science experiment that easily answers the question of, “how do magnets work?” Kids will love being able to experiment and draw their own fun animal shapes to create an ocean floor. Using the magnets will help teach concepts about how magnets work and easily reinforce science concepts.