Mighty Magnets!!!

How can we learn about the strength of our magnets by dipping them into a pile of paper clips? That was the question we asked ourselves prior to our lab. The general concensus seemed to be that the more paper clips a magnet picked up the stronger the magnet. We dove right in with our experiment and boy, did we enjoy ourselves! Who knew picking up paper clips could be so much fun!?!
Students conducted ten trials and then determined the mode of their data. Then we compared our results as a class. Some of us had magnets that could pick up ten more paper clips then our classmates' magnet. We talked about why our magnets, which are all the same size and brand, may have differing strengths. Some of had very worn and battered magnets which may have been dropped a lot, causing them to weaken, we also aren't sure that the magnets were purchased at the exact same time and some may have been used more than others. At the end of the day, we figured out which magnets from our class set were the strongest and which were the weakest! Well done scientists!