Design a Magnetic Friend Engineering Design Challenge | 1st Grade STEM Discoveries

Design a Magnetic Friend Engineering Design Challenge | 1st Grade STEM Discoveries

Students will step into the shoes of engineers as they explore the magic of magnets, uncover how they attract and repel, and design their own magnetic friend! Using Marsha is Magnetic as inspiration, learners will recognize that problems can have multiple solutions - just like real-world engineering.

Through hands-on creativity, students will construct their own magnetic friend, mastering the art of building magnetic hand closures using everyday materials. They’ll discover how magnets are used in technology, tools, and daily life, building real-world STEM knowledge in a fun and interactive way!

This unit is part of our new 1st Grade STEM Discoveries series - get ready to build, explore, and innovate!

What They’ll Learn:

• Explore how engineers use magnets in real-world designs

• Discover everyday objects that rely on magnets—from fridge doors to smartphones

• Learn how magnets attract and repel & understand north and south poles

• Experiment with magnetic materials and recognize what makes them unique

• Solve problems like an engineer - multiple solutions & creative thinking encouraged!

• Build and customize your own magnetic friend using simple materials

• Create magnetic hand closures while understanding magnet strength & properties

STEM Discoveries Storyline (Adaptable for Grades 1 - 2): Terra (a robot) arrives in the present because her futuristic world is missing some important things - creativity, curiosity, and the spirit of exploration! Her sensors picked up signs of innovation coming from your classroom. Terra’s mission: Learn from the students and discover STEM knowledge and inventions to bring back to the future!

A Mission to Design a Magnetic Friend: In this unit, students will learn about common characteristics of magnets and the properties of magnetic forces, attract & repel, and north & south poles. Students will read Marsha is Magnetic (watch on YouTube or read the physical book) to recognize that problems can have multiple solutions. Students will then design and build a magnetic friend with a magnet hand closure!

Engineering Learning Goals in this unit include:

• Real-World Connections: Understand that engineers use magnets when building and identify how magnets are used in many everyday objects.

• Making: Use common materials to build a friend and learn to successfully make magnetic hands/arms using magnets & magnetic materials.

• Habits of Mind: Recognize that problems have multiple solutions and that you must first define the problem before you can start on the solution.

• Science: Identify how magnets can attract and repel as well as build knowledge of what materials magnets are attracted to and begin calling them magnetic materials. Understand that not all materials are magnetic.

• Technology: Understand that magnets have different properties like north & south poles and recognize that magnets are used in lots of modern day technology devices like computers and smartphones. (ex. magnetic power cord connector on a MacBook.)

• Math: Understand that different magnets can pick up different numbers of magnetic objects and that more magnets together can pick up more magnetic objects.

Included in this product:

• Aligned to: NGSS, TEKS, and ITEEA Standards

• Complete Teacher Guide following the engineering design process

• Materials list and activity suggestions

• Editable teaching slides

• Student handouts for each phase of the design process, including science background, STEM career connection, and more!

• Two versions of student badges for completing the mission: pre-colored or a black and white option for students to color themselves to celebrate!

Recommended Supplies:

Required:

• card stock body print out 

• scissors

• masking tape

• glue

• construction paper

• markers or crayons

• yarn (for hair)

• magnetic items (paper clips, binder clips, brad fasteners, metal spoon, thimble, nuts & bolts, dull nail, metal ruler, etc.)

• non-magnetic items (wooden or plastic spoon, index card, felt square, rubber band, sticky note, marker, pencil, crayon, 

• age-appropriate size classroom magnets

• circle or bar magnets that can stack

• several full boxes of paper clips

• Magna-Tiles or Magnetic Tiles

Additional Options:

• magnetic wands

• magnetic fishing game