Classroom Outreach
Want to get your students excited about science – for free? Have a Mag Lab expert visit your classroom! Our extensive classroom outreach programs reaches more than 8,000 students a year. Teachers can choose from one of a dozen outreach topics that will give students a hands-on experience with science. If you're interested in an outreach activity conducted here at the lab in conjunction with a tour, please see our On-Site Outreach and Tours page.
- We offer a series of specially designed, hands-on lessons
- Each session features inquiry-based activities
- Visits are tailored to your specific needs
- Usually last 45 minutes to an hour
- We provide downloadable pre/post materials in PDF format
- All activities are correlated to Florida's Sunshine State Standards
Students explore with magnets.
Choose from one of the lessons below, or call us to customize a program to meet your specific needs. Please be prepared to stay with your class at all times during the outreach. Our educators are not responsible for the class, and therefore the regular room teacher must be present. In cases of a substitute, call ahead to the Center so that proper arrangements can be made.
Build an Electromagnet: Turn Magnets On & Off
Combining items commonly found in and around your house, you can create an electromagnet. Students are given the items and the basic directions for creating an electromagnet that is strong enough to pick up paper clips. They are then encouraged to modify their magnets and note the effects that each change brings to the strength of the magnet.
Download Pre/Post Materials (PDF).
Comet Tales: Cooking up a Comet
Students gain content knowledge about the composition and physical properties of comets. They learn about the NASA Stardust Mission and how scientists revise theories as they gain new information. During this outreach, a model of a comet is made using simple household items while students are engaged with questions about comets and space.
Discrepant Events: More Than Meets the Eye
Many times you see things that just don't seem to make sense. These discrepant events are explained more easily with science than they are with magic. Join us for a trip through surprise as these demonstrations get your mind racing.
Electricity, Static & Currents: The Power All Around Us
The motion of charged particles creates magnetic fields, but the actual motion of those particles is just as important as the fields they create. This activity aims to show what electricity is and how it travels. Students will create series circuits and parallel circuits using light bulbs as test units, then will see a Van de Graaff generator create electric sparks that can be used to transfer charges.
Download Pre/Post Materials (PDF).
Electromagnets: The Best of Both Worlds
This activity combines the Build an Electromagnet and Superconductivity activities.
Download Pre/Post Materials (PDF).
Ion Motors: Turn, Turn, Turn
We apply an electric charge to create a current in both a wire and an ionized solution. This shows principles of electricity, magnetism and chemistry as the students observe motion and changes right before their eyes.
Lenz's Law: Taming the Eddy currents
Science often presents some interesting principles, and this outreach is the investigation of one of them. It builds on the principles covered in Build an Electromagnet, challenging students to create a small electric motor.
Download Pre/Post Materials (PDF).
Liquid Nitrogen: The Coolest Show
Just when you think you can't get any colder, this demonstration shows just how cold things can get, and how some materials will behave differently at low temperatures.
Magnet Exploration: An Attractive Exploration
After a short introduction detailing the composition and principles of magnets, students are encouraged to experiment with magnets of different compositions, shapes and sizes. Students are encouraged to make "amazing discoveries" about the magnets, and to physically show the principles discussed earlier by actually using the magnets.
Download Magnets
Molecule Madness: Compounds of our Creation
This is an opportunity to explore the smallest world around us by allowing the students to discover atoms. Using special magnetic models as stand-ins for the real things, students will weigh their "newly discovered atoms" using a triple beam balance. They then assign symbols and names to "their" atoms and combine them to create molecules.
Download Pre/Post Materials (PDF).
Rainbows and Light: Our Favorite Spectrum
This is a chance to study the basic principles of the visible spectrum. Students will discuss white light, refraction and the spectrum of light. They will use prisms to break up white light and see the spectrum it creates.
Download Pre/Post Materials (PDF).
Spectrum Analysis: The Fingerprints of Gases
During our visit we will discuss the colors of light, then the students will use spectrum (diffraction grating) glasses to observe the different spectra. Using a spectral analysis chart, they will be asked to identify which gases are in which tubes.
Download Pre/Post Materials (PDF).
Superconductivity: A Matter of Temperature
Students drive a discussion on principles and properties of magnets, then construct their own electromagnets and test them. After discussing the variables that affect the strength of their magnets, they will see how temperature is the ultimate variable when dealing with electromagnets. The lesson concludes with an explanation and demonstration of the Meissner Effect.
What Is a Scientist: Explore the World Around You
This outreach introduces students to the subject of science, explains how scientists and engineers work day in and day out, and gets them thinking about the way they view science. Then students use their observational skills to explore magnets of different shapes and sizes, and make some amazing discoveries.
To request an outreach, please complete our online Outreach Request Form. For more information contact Felicia Hancock at hancock@magnet.fsu.edu or (850) 645-0034.
