gone fishing

Remember this fishing game that Mélina brought to school?

How, I wondered, does it work?  How do you catch a (plastic) fish - on a fishing line that has no nasty sharp (metal) hook?

Lakeisha’s hand was one of the first held aloft.  ‘There’s a sticky thing on the fish,’ she said.

‘It’s a magnetic thing,’ clarified Alexis.  ‘In the fish’s mouth.’

‘No!’   This from Yousouf.  ‘Both of them (the fish and the rod) have magnets.’

Close inspection of both rod and fish shows in fact that the ‘sticky thing’ on the fish is quite different from that on the rod.  But which is the magnet?  For one of them surely is.

OK let’s think some more.  What do we already know about magnets?

Ella.  ‘Magnets stick on metal.’

‘They can stick together sometimes,’ Joseph told us.

So how can we use what we already know to find out which is metal and which is magnet?

*Fast forward to our findings; that the fish has metal in its mouth and the rod has the magnet attached.  When the magnet on the rod swings near enough to the fish, the metal in the fish’s mouth is attracted to it.  And they stick together.

And now here’s a challenge.  How can you use some (plastic) foam fish, some (metal) paper clips, a (wooden) saté stick, some (plastic) string and a magnet to make your own fishing game?

Oh right - I see. Paper clips attached to the fish like sunny smiles…..

A magnet tied onto a fishing line…..

and Bob’s your uncle!

Now, who’s for a fish supper?

*I wonder; can you think how we found out which was the magnet?