Charging Ahead: An Introduction to Electromagnetism.

This guide explores the connection between electricity and magnetism with middle level and high school students. The phenomenon of electromagnetism is broken down into four lesson plans that provide students and teachers with a carefully constructed yet easy way to learn about their history. All four activities prompt students to use inexpensive, easily obtained materials such as wires, batteries, magnets, and plastic drinking cups and straws. The first activity evaluates the relationship between electric flow and the magnetism that is produced from that flow. Other activities have students build an electric motor and explore the concept of magnetic interaction, the force behind the workings of modern day electric motors that turn CDs, computer disk drives, and thousands of other devices. This book also incorporates sciLINKS, an innovative National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) resource that provides a link to key Web pages that compliment the activities. The book also incorporates maps from "The Atlas of Science Literacy" and Project 2061 from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). These maps help teachers identify a framework for where a student is in terms of standards-based learning goals. (SAH)