Electricity & Magnetism: A Timeline of Discovery

 

Hi! Welcome to day two of my spring 10-Day series. If you’re new here, take a moment to subscribe by email so each installment of the series can be delivered into your inbox & you don’t miss a thing!

 

10 Days of Electricity and Magnetism

 

Today is all about discovering the history of electricity and magnetism. Electricity wasn’t invented, it was discovered. It’s always been around, but it’s taken the work of many scientists over hundreds of years to learn all we know about it now – and the cool thing is that people are still learning new ways to harness and use its power!

Before Benjamin Franklin tried out his famous experiments with kites and keys, others were learning. You and your kids can begin your study with A Brief History… Electricity and Magnetism, a printable I prepared to get you started. Just click on the thumbnail to download it.

 

Brief History of Electricity

 

The printable really is a brief overview of the history of electricity, but if you want to learn more about the different discoveries that have led us to where we are today, there are many more thorough timelines online. You could have your child copy down one of the timelines on notebook paper or make a mini book to add to a science notebook or lapbook. Here are a few sites I’ve used:

 

My kids learn really well with videos, so I like to find some to start off our units. Here are a two I’ve used to learn about electricity and magnetism, including one of my favorites from Schoolhouse Rock:

 
 

Books are a great way to encourage your kids to continue their learning on their own. I always scatter a few around the house related to whatever we’re studying. There are wonderful books about electricity and magnetism that you can check out at your local library or find on Amazon {note – these are affiliate links} to enhance your study. Here are a few I like:

One of my favorite things to do when we study a science topic like electricity and magnetism is to set up a discovery table so the kids can play with the materials themselves as we learn about the topic. Some things I’ve put out are:

As you know, I’m passionate about hands-on learning. So, a study of electricity and magnetism wouldn’t be complete without several activities and experiments. I hope you’ll come back tomorrow to learn all about static electricity with us.

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Don’t forget to check out some of the other great Hopscotch topics by heading over to the iHomeschool Network and clicking through some of the links. 

 

 

Do you have any great resources for learning all about electricity and magnetism? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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