Magnets and magnetism have entranced humans ever since the phenomenon was discovered. To see objects move by some unknown and invisible force must have been considered magic by our early ancestors. Later, magnetism would be instrumental in navigation as people sailed across the world to uncharted territories. Today, magnets and magnetism are used in everyday household items for advanced medical imaging. Magnetism is one of the fundamental natural forces. It is an exciting topic to study for its potential for fun experiments by our young students.

In this game, the students will play the role of the magnet as they repel and attract each other. Tag is always a fan favorite of the students. This game will teach them about magnetic attraction and repulsion principles. One of the best parts of this game is that it can be repeated outside the gym in the classroom as an experiment to verify what they learned in the game.

Materials: 

·      An ample open space (such as a gym or field)

o   If played in a gym, a fun variation is to use the lines of the gym as the path the students must use (similar to “Pac-Man Tag”). This will help them understand where to travel during “repulsion.”

·      Note cards or playing cards

o   If using note cards, on half of the cards, write a “+” symbol with the word positive, and on the other half of the cards, write a “—” symbol and the negative.

o   If using playing cards, make all red cards negative and all the black cards positive.

·      (An optional material that can make the game fun would be to have magnet bars for each student. At the beginning of each round, the students would decide which end they would hold for the game and which end they would present to the person they tagged or got tagged by. This would be a concrete way for the students to see and experience the attraction and repulsion of magnetic forces, but this is not the cheapest option. On the other hand, if you have the magnets, or the budget, having actual magnets could make the game pretty interesting.)                  

Minimum Amount of Students Needed: This game could be played with a class of as few as six but would be much more fun with an entire class of 20+.

Age: All Ages