A customer came up with an interesting idea. She wanted to use our Constant Current System (CCS-BTA) to power electromagnets. For example the magnetic field of a coil or slinky labs in Physics with Vernier. This would have the advantage of giving you direct control of the current and not requiring a battery or other power supply. Looking at sample results in the instructor section of PWV, it looks like we use currents up to at least 2 amps.  The Constant Current Sensor can only provide up to 0.6 amps. My guess is that you could get some data and it might be worth trying, but I think you would need more turns of wire would help you get more change in the field.  In the instructions for lab 25 we only use up to 10 turns of wire and up to 3A of current.  If you used say 30 or 40 turns of wire, it should work pretty well.

I tried it out using a simple nail and wire combination as specified in the our physical science books and it just is not enough current to make the electromagnet even pick up a paperclip.