Four supplies - five if your kids are artistic - are all
it takes to make artificial fish swim. This was loads of fun, which is my favorite way to teach science concepts.
What You Need
White craft foam
Baking dish of water (either jelly roll or 9- x 13-inch casserole dish)
Liquid dish detergent
Permanent markers
What to Do
Cut fish shapes approximately 2 inches long from the
white craft foam. Decorate your fish with permanent markers if you want.
Cut a small rectangle out of the tail fin of each fish.
Fill a pan with about an inch of water.
Place your fish in the water, pointed in the direction
you want it to swim.
Carefully drop a drip of dish detergent in the fish's
tail fin notch.
Watch your fishy zoom forward!
To repeat, you'll need to dump the now soap-filled water
and refill with plain water.
Note: We wanted to race two fish but found that it was
tough to get the drips of soap in two fish so quickly. As soon as the soap
disperses in the water, the fish won't swim.
How Does it Work
The detergent breaks the surface tension of the water,
forcing the fish forward as the water molecules break apart because of the
soap.
Read
The awesome activity came from a collection of everyday
at-home science experiments. I highly recommend Kitchen Science Lab for homeschoolers, supplemental after school
science lessons, mad science-themed birthday activities, etc.
Why not teach your kids about fish along with this
activity? We read the following books, which inspired the designs of our fish
and our REAL understanding of how they swim in the wild.
This is awesome! I might tweak it a little so that it would work with a crowd and do this with my library kiddos. One thought about the racing. You could try using two eyedroppers to put the soap on simultaneously.
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