Magnetic moments materialized as the 4th grade students studied iron in Ms Reavell’s class at École FACE School on Friday the 3rd of April, 2009, thanks to MLP Team Iron (Fe), Livienne César (Education student and Bachelor of Art, UQAM ’06) and Sixian Lin (B.Sc. student U Montréal).    Iron is another “essential element” for plant and animal growth, one with the power of becoming magnetic. After refreshing our memory of when we studied hemoglobin and rust dyeing way back in 3rd grade, we were reminded of the biological need for iron which serves in hemoglobin as a transporter, like a school bus, to carry oxygen from the lungs to the body and carbon dioxide from the body to the lungs.  The students then examined a variety of magnets.  Sixian showed that magnetism could be transferred from a magnet to an iron nail, which was later used to make a compass pointing to the Earth’s magnetic north pole. The students made iron filings dance when moving a magnet under the table.  They learned that electricity could change iron into a magnet and explored the workings of an electromagnet.  Magnetizing all the iron around them with magnets and thinking about what is magnetic, the students assembled their own refrigerator magnets guided by Livienne and painted with iron oxide paint pigments that were brought back by MLP Team Mars when they visited the “red planet”, which has soil that is rich in iron oxide.

Grateful for their electromagnetic MLP experience, the students thanked Team Fe for showing us the powers of iron and magnetism.

For more information about iron see: http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/iron.htm

For lesson plan ideas about the role of iron in the human body : http://moleculesoflife.ca/2012/06/teach-about-hemoglobin/