Magnet
Electricity and Magnetism

Thinking about actions to take: Electromagnets at Work

Teaching Guidance for 11-14 Supporting Physics Teaching

There's a good chance you could improve your teaching if you were to:

Try these

  • relate the actions of electromagnets to those of permanent magnets
  • be very clear to separate electrical loops from magnetic fields
  • construct careful step-by-step accounts of the action of devices

Teacher Tip: Work through the Physics Narrative to find these lines of thinking worked out and then look in the Teaching Approaches for some examples of activities.

Avoid these

  • conflating the field with the coil producing the field

Teacher Tip: These difficulties are distilled from: the research findings; the practice of well-connected teachers with expertise; issues intrinsic to representing the physics well.

Magnet
can be analysed using Magnetic Field
IOP AWARDS 2025

Teachers of Physics Awards

The Teachers of Physics Award celebrates the success of secondary school physics teachers who have raised the profile of physics and science in schools. Nominations for 2025 are now open.

Start your nomination now