School Visit: Day 6

We had to handle a science lesson which was supposed to be 30 minutes, but turned out to be an hour and a half.. The lesson was divided into 2 sessions.

During the first session we had to ask children questions regarding functions of magnets in daily life. I was interested in their responses, as they vary from one another. One of the children mentioned that it is used by the crane to pick up cars. Most of the children never thought of that. There was another child who mentioned that two magnets can still be attached to one another even though we put a repulsive object in between. I never expected such response coming out of the children.

The second session was more challenging. First, the children were given magnets and different objects which attract and repel. Then, we asked them to tick on those which attract and those which repel in their worksheets. Later, we have them a quiz with questions related to what they did earlier. After a while, I suddenly ask them a question which was slightly different than what they had understood earlier. I asked them whether aluminium foil attracts magnet or not. Some said yes while others said no, with their own reasons. The most interesting reason that I heard was that the aluminium foil was made out of different materials and not just aluminium itself. Thus, some assumed that aluminium as a material may attract magnet, and not aluminium foil. At first I thought that they were just going to relate it with the food being contaminated by metals that are conductors but I was wrong.