Science Fishing Derby Reflection

This is a picture of the Electromagnet Fishing Pole attracting some paper clips

For our project, we experimented with a lot of different ways to bring a strong magnetic fishing pole. This blog post is all about the process, how we experimented, failed, experimented, and succeeded!

We first tried putting all our required materials assembled on the stick. Our task was to be able to make a circuit, where the screw could attract paper clips, and then efficiently be able to disconnect, so that we could drop the paperclips in our basket. The first experiment we did, was coiling the wire around the screw. We had to see whether coiling tightly and neatly around would be more effective, or coiling loose, and crossed. Coiling tightly was more effective. Once the coiling was done, we placed the battery holder and battery on the stick, and used a rubber band to help keep the battery in place, but also to be able to adjust the placing of the battery whenever we wanted. We had made mistakes in between like using too much tape on the wires, losing some of the magnetic effect. We also connected our wires around a metal slide, which prevented the circuit to form, where the magnetism would reach the screw. By doing that mistake, the magnetism was just bouncing of the slide, and going back to the battery. it wasn't reaching the screw. We finally just used the slide as a surface for placing the wires, but made sure the wires weren't affected. Once everything seemed in place, we tested our fishing pole. The magnetism was there, but not strong enough to pick up any clips. I concluded that the magnetism was weak and maybe there was a problem in the batteries. It turned out the batteries were worn out, and new batteries were then replaced. Finally the fishing pole worked, and in the Derby Challenge, my partner and I were able to get 8 paper clips!

What I took away from this challenge, was that to make a good fishing pole, the coiling should be tight and neat to make the magnetism stronger, and the batteries and battery holder should be tested before assembling. Also, being careful with making a circuit is very important, to make sure nothing is taking the magnetism away. The circuit was made by connecting one end of the wire with one end of the battery wire. The other wire was not connected because that was going to be the navigator for the switch. For the switch we used a clip. we touched the two wires and placed a clip to secure the connection. then when we wanted to detach the connection so that the paper clip caught could fall, we simply took the clip out and separated the two wires.