Year 8 physics knowledge organiser – electricity and magnetism
This physics knowledge organiser is designed to help Y8 students revise all the key knowledge on magnetism and electromagnetism for the AQA KS3 science syllabus.
For the topic of magnetism, it includes definitions of key terms such as 'magnetic field', 'magnetic poles', 'attract' and 'repel', with a diagram of magnetic field lines between the poles.
For electromagnetism, there is a helpful diagram of a solenoid and information on the factors that determine the strength of an electromagnet.
The knowledge organiser is provided in a completed 'revision mat' version and a gapped version to test students' recall. The gapped version will work best printed on A3 paper so that students have room to write.
The suggested answer to one of the challenge questions:
Explain observations about navigation using Earth’s magnetic field.
Earth has an invisible magnetic field with a north and a south pole. People have discovered ways to navigate the oceans using the Earth’s magnetic field. The needle of a compass is a small magnet. Wherever a person is in the world, the compass needle will always point to the north. The first compasses were naturally occurring rocks called lodestones which, when suspended from a thread, always turned their same side towards the pole star, showing the direction of north even when the stars could not be seen.
