Making magnets is a great science teaching assignment for younger students. Use a small steel object that is safe for small children, such as a paper clip.
Get a magnet thicker than a fridge magnet. Rub the paper clip or small metal item against the thicker magnet quickly and in a circular motion about a hundred or more times.
The paper clip will hold a magnetic charge for a few minutes. Show the children how the new magnet works. Run the magnetically charged paper clip over steel shavings or other small metal items and pick them up.
A magnet is made of a reverse field of ferromagnetic materials. These materials include iron, nickel, cobalt and other alloys. The magnetic field created by these materials is invisible, but very strong.
By the process of induction, a metal object becomes magnetized while near a magnet. Another paper clip experiment is to create a paper clip chain. Attach the end of one paper clip to a magnet and attach a paper clip to the end of that paper clip. The magnetic induction from the large magnet is transferring through the paper clips. The reason that the original experiment of rubbing a paper clip on a magnet worked is because the iron paper clip induced so much of the magnetic field that it held the magnet's characteristics until the induced magnetism in the paper clip grew weak after picking up other metal objects.
