Robofish and electrical circuits

Pamela Delorenzi, Marco Calo & Barbara Freschi Pedroia – Robofish e scoperta dei circuiti elettrici, Festival Science on Stage 2026, Klaipeda, Lituania

One day, a new toy arrives in Miss Pamela’s Year 2 class: the ROBOFISH. We call it Clementino, after the fish in a story we’ve just read. We start playing with it and realise that the fish swims, moves its fins and lights up when submerged in water. But why does it only move in water? How does it work? How does it light up in water? We come up with some initial hypotheses, but they don’t quite convince us. So we write a letter asking for help from our older classmates, Miss Barbara’s Year 5 class. A project begins, involving hypotheses, letter exchanges, building toys and various challenges. Agata and Alessia, the ‘scientists’ from the Giardino della Scienza, provide us with ideas and new games to experiment with and discover everything about electrical circuits, the history and energy of batteries, and the conductivity of materials. Two grandfathers and a dad who are electricians also help us build new games to help us better understand electrical circuits. In the end, we solve the mystery of the ROBOFISH: by immersing the fish in water – which conducts electricity – the circuit is completed and the toy lights up! We round off the experience with a tasty snack shaped like Volta’s battery and dress up as light bulbs for the town carnival.