Phantom Forces

Hello friends! This Halloween, we hosted a spooky Curiosity Club at Boo Bash with the Virginia Discovery Museum! For this session, we explored the invisible forces of magnetism with our activity, Phantom Forces: Curious Cauldron. Children became "potion makers." They picked spooky "ingredients" from our Ingredient Market and used large magnetic wands to see which ones the magnet would attract. Along the way, they made predictions, tested their ideas, and looked for patterns in how different materials responded.

Phantasmic Forces of Magnetism

Our RAs and Lab Manager all dressed up for Boo Bash!

Magnetism was a perfect Halloween activity because it feels a little like magic. You can’t see a magnetic force, but you can see what it does. For instance, a paper clip jumps toward a magnet almost as if a ghost pulled it. This mystery is exactly what sparks curiosity. Children couldn’t tell just by looking at the ingredient if it would stick, so they had to predict, test, and observe to find out. 

Magnets pull on certain metals, such as iron and steel. Lots of everyday objects, like paper clips and bobby pins, are made of steel, so the magnet pulls them right in. But not all metals are magnetic, which is why some of our results were so surprising.

For example, aluminum foil is shiny and metallic and looks like it should stick, but it doesn't! A few of our ingredients, “Dragon Scales” and “Fairy Crystals,” were magnets. Some ingredients also had hidden metal sources, like a pipe cleaner!

Our Stations

Station 1: Ingredient Market

Every potion starts with ingredients. Children were each handed a Halloween bowl and shopped at our market of spooky, mysterious items:

Collection of our spooky ingredients!

• Dragon Scales (magnet chips)

• Spider Legs (paper clips)

• Witch's Brooms (popsicle sticks)

• Monster Eyeballs (googly eyes)

• Wiggly Worms (pipe cleaners)

• Phoenix Feathers (feathers)

• Moon Rocks (aluminum foil)

• Cat Whiskers (bobby pins)

• Fairy Crystals (small clear magnets)

Children had the chance to explore and choose from each object, which they closely looked at, and made the main prediction: will the magnet pull it? We encouraged them to choose a mix of ingredients that looked, felt, or were made differently, so their potion would give them plenty to compare.

A potion maker with their cauldron and wand is visiting the Ingredient Market.

Station 2: Brewing Cauldron

Next, it was time to brew! Potion makers took a large magnetic wand and slowly moved it through their cauldron. Some ingredients stuck right to the wand, and others stayed put. This was where a lot of excitement happened! Some children went back to the Ingredient Market to test new items. Others looked closely at their results and started noticing patterns between the objects. 

Station 3: Potion Power Reveal

Once their potion was tested, the children then traded in their potions for a Potion Power Card that celebrated the curiosity skill they used:

• Magnet Detective (Investigating): You tested your spooky ingredients with the magnetic wand and discovered which ones it pulled.

• Prediction Wizard (Predicting): You shared what you thought would happen, then tested your idea.

• Invisible Force Finder (Observing): You watched closely and noticed what moved and what stayed behind.

• Pattern Spotter (Comparing): You compared your ingredients and looked for things they had in common.

• Curiosity Champion (Wondering): You asked a question or shared something you wondered about.

• Potion Problem-Solver (Trying Again): You tried again or changed how you tested your potion.

Our research assistants read each card aloud and celebrated the child’s scientific thinking. 

How we Supported Curiosity

At the REAL Lab, we use the Curiosity in Classrooms Framework (Jirout et al., 2022) to design activities that spark children’s natural sense of wonder. Phantom Forces focused on two main components of this framework:

• Embracing the unknown: Most children didn’t know which mystery ingredients would stick to the wand. They made predictions before testing and found out for themselves! When the results were surprising, like the aluminum foil pieces, we treated it as a chance to learn! Being comfortable with not knowing is a big part of being curious.

• Opportunity to freely explore: Children chose their own ingredients, tested them in their own way, and could go back for more when a new question or inquiry came up. Letting children lead their own investigations gives them ownership of their discoveries. 

Try It at Home

Curiosity can happen anywhere, and you do not need to know every answer to encourage it. When your child wonders about something, try saying, “I am not sure. How could we find out together?”

Here’s a simple magnet investigation you can do at home:

Another potion maker mixing their ingredients!

1. Grab a refrigerator magnet and gather a few household objects, such as a paper clip, a spoon, a plastic toy, a piece of aluminum foil, or a coin.

2. Before testing, ask your child to predict: will the magnet pull it? Why do you think so?

3. Test each object at a time.

4. Sort the objects into “magnetic” and “not magnetic” groups.

5. Talk about the results! Which ones surprised you? What do magnetic objects have in common?

A big thank you to the Virginia Discovery Museum for having us at Boo Bash, and to all our potion makers and their families for hanging with us!   

Until next time,

Camila Pueblitz