Big Fish, Little Fish

They continued on, rustling through their papers. The results of a puzzle about beavers drew a frown from Wilder. When shown a picture of a beaver dam, the kids did badly on answering the first question — what is the beaver doing? — but very well (19 out of 26) on the second question, why is he doing it? "The layers are switched," Wilder said. She wanted the easier question first. On to the fish questions: Why was the little fish hiding from the big fish? Sherman looked up from her notes. "I had a great answer. 'The little fish didn't want to scare the big fish.' That's why he was hiding." They all laughed. Finally, came the most important question. Was the order of Blue's clues correct? Wilder and Oilman had presented the clues in the order that the script had stipulated: ice, waddle, then black and white. Four of the 17 kids they talked to guessed penguin after the first clue, six more guessed it after the second clue and four alter all three clues. Wilder then turned to Sherman, who had given her clues in a different order: black and white, ice, waddle. "I had no correct answers out of nine kids alter one clue," she reported. "After ice, I was one of nine, and after waddle I was six of nine." "Your clincher clue was waddle? That seems to work," Wilder responded. "But along the way were they guessing lots of different things?" "Oh yes," Sherman said. "After one clue, I had guesses of dogs, cows, panda bears, and tigers ...»