Keep Kids' Minds Active in the Summer With This Amazing Magnet Pen
It can be hard to find activities for the kids to do that are both educational and fun, but this experiment is just that. Keep your kids busy and their minds active this summer by making a magic spinning pen. The best part? You probably have all of the materials for this experiment already!
Magic Spinning Pen
By using some ring magnets, you’ll be able to create a magic spinning pen. The kids will love this one as they’ll watch the pen spin around seemingly by itself, but you’ll love being able to explain to them how magnetism works through this experiment.
Before you start you should keep in mind: neodymium magnets must be handled with care to avoid personal injury as well as damage to the magnets. Fingers and other body parts can get severely pinched between two attracting magnets, and bones can be broken by larger magnets. Children should not be allowed to play with neodymium magnets as they can be dangerous with small magnets posing a choking hazard. As always, magnets should never be swallowed or inserted into any part of the body.
Now, let’s get back to the magnetic magic!
What You Need:
- Cardboard
- 3 small dowel rods (old chopsticks or pencils work too!)
- 4 ½ x ⅛ x ⅛ inch neodymium ring magnets
- A pen or pencil
- Hot glue gun
- Scissors
- Use a cup to cut a circle out of the cardboard. Then, use a smaller cup or lid and trace another circle within it. Cut out the inner circle and set aside.
- With the larger cardboard circle, arrange three ring magnets equally spaced out. You want them to repel each other, so make sure they don’t connect with each other when they’re close to one another.
- Hot glue the magnets to the cardboard, then poke holes through the cardboard where the holes of the magnets are (this is where the sticks will go through).
- Grab a square piece of cardboard to act as a base, and attach the three sticks to it vertically with hot glue.
- Slide the cardboard ring with the attached magnets through the sticks, going about two inches down.
- Attach the fourth ring magnet to the bottom of the pen/pencil -- you can do this with modeling clay or tape. Place the pen inside the sticks and cardboard piece. The point is for the fourth magnet to be attracted to the other magnets so, you may have to swing the pen around a bit and adjust the height of the magnet until it connects to the other three.
- Add the scrapped center of the cardboard ring to the base cardboard to catch any pen markings.
- Now it’s the fun part! Spin the pen and watch it twirl.