Topics Concepts Citizen science Teacher PLD Glossary

Earth’s magnetic field

The Earth has a magnetic field extending thousands of kilometres into space. There is no big magnet inside the Earth. How the field is made, and why it occasionally reverses direction, is not fully understood.

Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

Published: 11 May 2011Size: 470.98 KB

Explore related content

Appears in Related resources

Article

Introducing magnetism

Magnetism is a fascinating invisible force – it influences the environment around it. A magnet is a material that can pull certain types of metal towards...

Article

Fossil compasses

The Earth has a magnetic field around it, and some magnetic minerals line up with that field. A compass also lines up in the field so...

Activity

Labelling the eye

The human eye contains structures that allow it to perceive light, movement and colour differences.

Teacher PLD

Investigating in science

Both science and mātauranga pūtaiao build knowledge and understanding about our world. Often, we start with curiosity about something we’ve noticed and we want to find...

Article

Te Tatauranga o ngā manu māra – te tūhura raraunga

He tohunga ō tātou tūpuna mō te āta mātaitanga. He mea whakamōhio i a rātou ngā raraunga mai i ngā mātaitanga i te manaakitanga o te...

Email us

Your Email address

See our newsletters here.

News and events About Contact Us Privacy Copyright Help

Curious Minds is a Government initiative jointly led by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the Ministry of Education and the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor.