Exploring Our Fluid Earth

Although this activity worked out in the end it was really difficult to get going. Many lights were defective and finding out which were bad consumed about ten minutes. It of course could have been teacher in haste. The wires clips were a little wimpy and a larger gage would keep the attachments together better. The play factor with freshmen came into the picture when one apparatus failed to work and another student would grab it away and tear it apart and literally start over studying the diagram and complaining about the previous students failed attempt to assemble the conductivity meter. The activity continued with predictions about which solution would conduct electricity the best and finally answer the question "Would you rather be in the ocean or in a lake during a lightning storm?"