Actively Determining Activities

In the lab of determining an activity series, we basically observed how different metals reacted with each other. Magnesium was the most reactive, (Four out of four reactions), followed by Zinc (Three out of four reactions), with Iron and Copper duking it out for third (Both got one out of four) and Silver coming in last by a nose (None out of four).
The reactions observed were all redox reactions. This means the reactants exchanged electrons, like so:

Zn (s) + Cu (2+, aq) 

This means Zinc is solid, and Copper has a two positive charge and is aqueous, for those of us who don't speak chemistry. It turns into this:

Zn (2+, aq) + Cu (s)

The Zinc is now aqueous, with a two positive charge, and the Copper is now solid.