The "Mystery Bag" Sorting Game

This is the classic introductory exercise. It forces learners to look past visual cues (like color or shininess) to focus on material properties.
The Setup: Provide a tray of various items: paperclips, brass fasteners, copper pennies, aluminum foil, plastic toy figures, iron nails, and wooden sticks.
The Task: Have learners predict which items are magnetic before they touch them with a magnet.
The Lesson: They will discover that while many magnetic items are “shiny metals,” not all metals (like copper or aluminum) are magnetic.