Science Investigation Box

This science investigation box includes various activities and investigations for children to do with magnets.  There are five different activities for the students to complete.  These activities within the investigation box are directed for students in kindergarten.  Within the box, the contents for each activity are separated into bags that include a list of the materials they need for the activity and directions for the activity.  Because this is for kindergarten students, both the list of materials and the directions have picture clues to help struggling readers.  In addition, the box also contains a list of materials that should be in the entire box, so the students know what belongs in the box when they are finished using it.

The first activity in the investigation box is an activity where the students must determine if an item is magnetic or not.  They must sort the items into two separate piles (magnetic and not magnetic) using the magnet included.

 The second activity is a magnetic scavenger hunt, and the children will be given a magnet and asked to search the room for items that are magnetic.

The third activity is the strongest magnet contest.  In this activity, the student will be given three different magnets of different strengths and a box of paper clips.  The student will then see how many paper clips each magnet attracted and count the paper clips to find which magnet is strongest.

The fourth activity is a magnet maze where the students use a piece of paper with a maze drawn on, a ruler with a magnet taped to the end, and a paper clip.  The student will use the ruler with the magnet to move the paper clip through the maze by guiding it along underneath the paper maze.  The students can then create their own mazes to run their paper clips through.

The last activity is a fishing game in which the students are given a fishing rod with a magnet tied to the end and paper fish with paper clips attached to them.  The students will then go fishing for the fish that are magnetic (with the paper clip).  The students will be able to observe that they cannot pick up the paper fish that do not have a paper clip attached to them.  Lastly, there are two books within the box for the children to use as a reference while completing these various activities previous described.