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

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.

What Is a Scientist and Magnet Exploration

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.
Download Pre/Post Materials (PDF).

Advanced Magnetic Exploration

Building on the basic principle that magnets attract and repel, students begin to learn about the magnetic domains of electrons and how electrons work to give things a magnetic field. This leads to the discovery of the magnetic properties of objects that are ferromagnetic and diamagnetic.
Download Pre/Post Materials (PDF)

Electromagnets

Students drive a discussion on principles and properties of magnets, then construct their own electromagnets and test their strength. We talk about different types of magnets, how they are used in the home and how magnetic fields can be measured.
Download Pre/Post Materials (PDF)

Electric Motors

Science often presents some interesting principles, and this outreach is the investigation of one of them. It builds on the principles covered in "Basic Electromagnets," challenging students to create a small electric motor.

Static Electricity and Circuits

This activity demonstrates how items can acquire charges from other objects, and how these charges can make objects attract, repel and even create sparks of electricity. Students will create circuits using light bulbs as test units. Then they will use a Van de Graaff generator that can transfer charges.

Ion Motors

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.

Rainbows and Light

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.

Spectrum Analysis

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).

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.

Molecule Madness

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).

Discrepant Events

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.

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For more information contact Felicia Hancock at hancock@magnet.fsu.edu or (850) 645-0034.