National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Bell Telephone 1876
Acoustics, variable resistance and allegations of foul play contribute to the exciting story of the invention of the telephone.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Coaxial Cable 1929
As more and more American households acquired telephones, the pressure was on to create a better cable to accommodate the increasing demand. Engineers Lloyd Espenschied and Herman Affel answered the call.
Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement (SMILE)
Smile: Introduction to Magnets (Classroom Unit)
A teacher unit which includes several hands-on activities about types of magnets, magnetism, and electrostatics. An activity designed to suit all grade levels. Many parts of the activity would be easily adaptable as a student project.
Curated OER
Physics4 kids.com: Electricity & Magnetism: Resistance
Simple line graph showing the inverse relationship between the amount of electrical resistance and the amount of work possible.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Cup Speaker
This activity will have students creating their own speaker with a paper cup, coil of wire, and magnet. The speaker operates by changing electric current into sound.
Physics Aviary
Physics Aviary: Thomson's Cathode Ray Tube Lab
This lab is designed to have students look at the deflection of a cathode ray beam using magnetic fields and electric fields.
Florida State University
Florida State University: Lightning, a Natural Capacitor
Text and animated graphic show how lightning is an example of a natural capacitor.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Put the Charge in the Goal
Students face a game-like challenge to use electrostatic forces to move a charged puck into a goal. By placing charges on the rink, a charged puck can be attracted and repelled around obstacles and into a goal.
Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement (SMILE)
Smile: Electromagnets (Grades 3 and 4)
This lesson helps students to understand the difference between magenets and electromagnets. They will also create an electromagnet.
Cornell University
Cornell University: Astronomy: Electromagnetism and Charge
This site from Cornell University provides a very short, very telling comparison of matter and charge. This is a good site to check out on the subject, with a chart diagram to help with further information.
Wikimedia
Wikipedia: Electromagnet
Easy-to-read information and an illustration of an "electromagnet," a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is induced by the flow of an electric current.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Motor Effect
"A magnet exerts a force on current-carrying wire." This simple device shows how magnets affect wires with current in them, the basis of the electric motor. If you see, feel and understand this, the electric motor becomes very clear.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Two Sides of One Force
Students learn more about magnetism, and how magnetism and electricity are related in electromagnets. They learn the fundamentals about how simple electric motors and electromagnets work. Students also learn about hybrid...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Get Your Motor Running
Students investigate motors and electromagnets as they construct their own simple electric motors using batteries, magnets, paper clips and wire.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Oscilloscope 1897
From the auto shop to the doctor's office, the oscilloscope is an important diagnostic tool. A mechanic may use an oscilloscope to measure engine function, while a medical researcher uses it to monitor heart activity.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Stanley Transformer 1886
Applying discoveries Michael Faraday had made a few decades earlier, William Stanley designed the first commercial transformer for Westinghouse in 1886.
Climate Literacy
Clean: Going for a Spin Making a Model Steam Turbine
Students explore how various energy sources can be used to cause a turbine to rotate and then generate electricity with a magnet.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Physical Science: Electromagnetic Induction
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Covers what electromagnetic induction is, how it occurs, the current produced from it, and how it is used.
Other
The James Clerk Maxwell Foundation
The home page of the The James Clerk Maxwell Foundation, a charitable foundation to commemorate the life and work of James Clerk Maxwell. View Maxwell's house and read about the personal life of this notable scientist.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Building an Electromagnet
Student teams investigate the properties of electromagnets. They create their own small electromagnet and experiment with ways to change its strength to pick up more paper clips. Students learn about ways that engineers use...
Great Idea Finder
The Great Idea Finder: Michael Faraday
A solid biography of good length and history of Faraday's work. Complete, readable, thorough. Picture. Lots of links to other sources, including Joseph Henry's claim that *he* was first, and another about Faraday's kinetic flashlight!
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Interactive Physics for High School
This digital textbook covers core physics concepts and includes interactive features, real world examples, videos, and study guides.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mit: Open Course Ware: Resources: Electromagnetic Field Theory
College-level electrical engineering textbook starting from the Coulomb-Lorentz force law on a point charge. Sample problems that reinforce the content are found at the end of each chapter. Includes downloadable excerpts of the textbook...
Wolfram Research
Wolfram Science World: Maxwell, James
This ScienceWorld site describes the Scottish mathematician and physicist James Maxwell (1831-1879) who published physical and mathematical theories of the electromagnetic field.