Magnets and magnetic field - KS3 Activate lesson

A full 1 hour lesson designed for a mixed ability year 8 class.
This is the 1st lesson in “Chapter 1 - Electricity and Magnetism” from Activate 2, Physics.
This lesson should be suitable to teach to any KS3 Physics class, even by those where physics is not their specialism.
This lesson includes a teacher-led practical demonstration where the magnetic field of a bar magnet is represented using iron filings, and a guided class practical where students investigate and represent the shape of a magnetic field around a bar magnet using a plotting compass.
A practical demonstration may also be used where teachers hang a bar magnet from a thread off of a clamp stand to show how it aligns with the magnetic poles of the Earth.

From this lesson, students should be able to:

• Describe how north and south poles of magnets interact with each other
• Recall which materials are magnetic
• Investigate and represent the shape of a magnetic field around a bar magnet using a plotting compass.
• Describe the magnetic field of the Earth.

All of my lesson resources contain:

• A 5-in-5 retrieval-style starter
• An interesting lesson hook, careers link, or retrieval practice to start the lesson
• Teacher input slides with dual coding and reduced cognitive load
• Teacher models
• Regular ‘check for understanding’ slides, such as hand signals quizzes
• Regular student independent practice slides, with optional scaffolds, challenges and answer slides
• A plenary task