Junior Infants did a fun science project! We went fishing with magnets! This was for our part in the school’s Discover Primary Science and Maths award.
Before we could go fishing however, we had lots to learn.
First we learned the difference between wood and metal.
We learned that kettles, cars and scissors have metal in them.
We saw that chairs, tables and rolling pins are made out of wood.
Next, we learned about pushing and pulling. We learned that whenever you push or pull you are using a “force.”
You push a buggy and you push a swing! We had great fun pushing things in the classroom to see what we could push!
We pulled the cap off teachers pen and we pulled the door open!
Liam from senior infants came in and showed us the pushing and pulling puppets that senior infants had made!
Next, we learned about magnets.
We learned that the two ends of a magnet are called poles. The red end of the magnet is the north pole and the blue end of the magnet is the south pole!
Teacher told us that the poles that are the same are the “like” poles, and the poles that are a different colour are the “different” or “unlike” poles.
“Like” poles, the ones that are the same, try to get away from each other! They “repel.”
Different poles try to get near each other, they “attract.”
Teacher told us that the invisible thing that is trying to get the magnets together (to attract) and trying to get the magnets apart (to repel) is called a “force”.
It’s a force like the one used in pushing and pulling!
But this one is a bit different and is called a “magnetic force”.
Teacher told us that metal sticks to a magnet! Some of us already knew this as we had seen it on “Toy Story” the movie!
She showed us some spoons and some metal shavings sticking to a magnet.
We wanted to test it for ourselves however…… so teacher said that we were going to go “fishing with magnets!!!!!”
So we made some beautiful fish!
So we had the fish, but what were we going to fish with? Teacher attatched a magnet onto some string.
If the magnet stuck to the fish, we would know that’s because it was the fish with metal in it’s mouth!
We already knew that the fish that had paper clips and paper fastners in it’s mouth were the ones with metal in them, so it was time to try to catch some fish!
We learned that in science however, it is important to record your experiments. We used what we knew about data to make this chart.
If you managed to catch a fish, you got a tick under the smiley face. If you had a few gos and then managed to catch a fish, you got a tick under the medium face. If you caught no fish you got a tick under the sad face.
Lets go fishing!
Here we realised that the fish with just one paperclip in it’s mouth was falling off the magnet! We couldn’t catch it! That was because the fish was too heavy. If we put more paperclips in the mouth of the fish, there would be more force attracting it to the magnet and it wouldn’t fall off!
Teacher said this happens sometimes in science experiments, you need to figure out what works and what doesn’t!
We were making so much noise cheering whenever anyone got a fish, that Ms. Sexton came in to see what was going on!
Lots more fish were caught.
And here are the results from our experiment:
We love science!!! It is so much fun!!
10:14 am on March 11th, 2015
Wow Junior Infants, it looks like Ms. Ní Chionnaith is really ‘pushing’ you all! That seems like such a fun way to learn all about forces! Ms. Fry
2:31 pm on March 11th, 2015
“We had a great day, thank you,” says A.J.
“That’s nice to put that comment up,” says Toby.
“It was a happy day,” says Lauren.
11:04 pm on March 11th, 2015
Thanks for teaching me all about magnets Junior Infants – I had great fun and I LOVED your fishing game!
3:22 pm on March 17th, 2015
Well done Junior Infants on carrying out a great experiment! Thank you for inviting Senior Infants into your classroom to tell us about magnets and for letting us go fishing too! We had a great time!
2:26 pm on March 18th, 2015
Well done
2:33 pm on March 18th, 2015
Hard luck Ms. Sexton 🙂