Lenz's Law Lab (a celebration of the letter L)

Here is a great lab for investigating Electromagnetic Induction and Lenz’s Law (topic 12). Myself and Mike modified this lab from our friend Gary Piech. Basically it’s the demo where you drop a magnet down a copper or aluminum tube and it goes really slowly, much to astonishment of all watching. (note astonishment in picture). In this case coils of wire are wrapped around the tube (in series) and connected to a current sensor. Our students analyzed the current spikes in the loops versus time. They will then explain how these results (which turn out to show terminal velocity of the falling magnet) support Lenz’s and Faraday’s Laws.

How Marking Labs Can Suck Less

I think I’ve convinced my school’s science dept (at the International School of Manila) to purchase some software known as G4IA (Group 4 Internal Assessments). It provides a great format for quickly marking students’ labs for the IB. It is good for all the sciences in group 4. Check it out here:

EDUAP: G4IA

I think you’ll like it. You can download a trial version easily and mess around with it.