Magnetic Doodles
Seeing the variety of magnetic powers never fails to amaze. In this project, watch as two magnetic forces come together… the magnetic doodles! This was a project we did over and over. It almost resembles one of those Doodle drawing toys that you can “erase” to redo multiple times.
Note: Should not be attempted with children who may inhale/swallow iron filings. This is a hazard!
Supplies
- Magnetic Sheets
- Iron Filings
- Colorful card stock paper
- Plastic Squeeze bottles
- Tray large enough to hold one magnetic sheet and paper on top (we cut ours in half)
- Scissors
Instructions
Cut the magnetic sheet and paper as needed to fit comfortably inside the tray.
Place one magnetic sheet on the bottom of the tray. Place paper on top of the sheet.
Fill a squeeze bottle with iron filings. Clip the top of the squeeze bottle off so filings can easily flow from the top. Don’t trim so much that they spill out (as we learned), you just want a gentle, continuous flow.
Hold the squeeze bottle above the paper and “draw” with the iron filings.
When you are done you can gently lift the entire drawing (be sure to grab hold of the magnetic sheet) into a vertical position and the iron filings will stay in place due to the magnetic force.
Over a tray, separate the paper from the magnetic sheet and watch the iron filings fall off the drawing. Start over! We simply dumped the filings from the tray back into the squeeze bottle to begin again.
This is a great project for art enthusiasts to “draw” different pictures and for science-loving kids to witness the magnetism and density of the filings. It’s also nice to be able to save the filings for another project! Check out the video of the magnetic doodles below.
For more science experiments for kids, please check out our Pinterest!
Photographs and content by: Heather Kucenski
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