Smarter Every Day: Mind-Blowing Magic MagnetsFor your students who say, "Why should I learn this stuff," try this 9-minute video from award-winning YouTube STEM video creator Destin Sandlin. Destin explores exciting new technologies in polymagnets and how 3D printing is being used to manipulate the magnetic fields in these magnets. The resulting magnetic behaviors are being used for a variety of creative applications, such as magnetic couplings without physical contact. Superimposed magnetic field lines are drawn above a conventional magnet and a 3D printed polymagnet to show the surprising difference in field configuration. NOTE* This resource also addresses NGSS DCI #PS3.c -- "When two objects interacting through a field change relative position, the energy stored in the field is changed."
NPR: Ancient Trees Show When Earth's Magnetic Field Last Flipped OutSo Earth's magnetic field sometimes flips. Why should I care? This short 2021 article from NPR reports on recent research that die-offs of large mammals occurred in periods when the Earth's magnetic field was weak. Giant kauri trees in New Zealand, which lived through the last reversal of Earth's magnetic field, were studied to make a detailed record of the timing of magnetic field changes. Findings indicated that a short-term pole reversal occurring 42,000 years ago is correlated to a die-off of large mammals on Earth and to advent of cave dwelling among Paleolithic populations. The researchers suggest that this pole flip resulted in hominids seeking cave shelter to avoid the damaging blast of solar wind when the magnetic poles flipped. Many geoscientists believe Earth is due for another pole reversal any time now.
Veritasium: Can Humans Sense Magnetic Fields?Magnetoreception is a well-documented sensory ability among bacteria, bees, pigeons, turtles, salmon, whales, and cats. But what about humans? In this 14-minute video, physics education researcher (and YouTube channel creator) Derek Muller climbs inside a modified Faraday cage to let scientists at CalTech measure his ability to detect rotations of geomagnetic fields. How did he do? How did CalTech's other participants do in the experiment? No, we're not going to do a spoiler here! This would be a great choice as a warm-up activity to get students' brains firing. NGSS Connection: Aligns nicely with Physical Science DCI MS-PS2.B.iii: "Forces that act at a distance can be explained by fields that extend through space and can be mapped by their effect on a test object." In this case, Derek Muller is the test object!