Go with the Flow

Ah! the days of childrens’ science projects.  As a parent I found I learned more than just science in helping my daughter with her project.  My daughter recently chose electricity as the subject of her 5th grade science project.  I must admit that I was very surprised when she told me the experiment that she wanted to run.  I am not sure what I was expecting (maybe something like having to explain that we can’t stick screwdrivers in wall sockets).  I was very surprised when she explained that she wanted to use a small electrical current to determine the conductivity of water with different materials dissolved in the water.  She explained how she wanted make a circuit with a battery, a small light and a bowl of water, which would be changed for each material that she wanted to test.  She was planning to observe the brightness of the lightbulb to determine the conductivity of the water.  She even had a clever name for the project, “A Bright Idea.”  I was dumbfounded that my 5th grade daughter came up with this all by herself.

This is the same girl that can’t stand to go into Home Depot because of the smell and whose favorite activity is shoe shopping.  Now she is telling me not only how to construct electric circuits but also practical applications of those circuits.  I was …. well I don’t really have a word for it but it is some sort of mixture of surprise, disbelief and mostly pride.  My little girl does work hard at school and for all her girlishness she learns a lot and it shows.

Anyway, it gave me a great chance to breakout an electric lab kit that I had picked up a year or so ago from another electrical engineer wannabee who never used it.  Ruth Ann and I used it to put together a circuit and test the water.  I did explain to her it would be better to use a meter instead of a lightbulb to determine the current flow through the water because it would be easier to measure.  We had fun and I learned a lot about electricity …. and even more about my daughter.

 Oh, I like my daughter’s second title for the project even better, “Go with the Flow.”