Fun At Home Science Activities – Batteries | Electricity for Kids
Written by Victoria, Summer Science Ambassador (science activities for kids)
This week’s experiment is a great addition to our series of science activities for kids and focuses on electricity, more specifically batteries. Batteries are a common power source for many of our everyday appliances like TV remotes, toys, and flashlights. Now, despite what you may believe, particles flow from the negative side of the battery to the positive side instead of the other way around. These particles are called electrons. Electrons are very small, negatively charged particles that move, creating an electrical current. The positive side attracts the negative electrons and causes them to flow through a circuit. The circuit can consist of conductors, resistors, and electrolytes.
Experiment: This week we will be creating a battery out of pennies, cardboard and zinc washers.
Purpose: The purpose of this experiment is to show how electric fields and electrons affect everyday objects.
Disclaimer: If you are under 10 ask a parent for help
Materials: For this experiment you will need:
- Pennies from before 1982 are most effective because 98% copper (or anything copper)
- Zinc washers (or anything zinc)
- Cardboard
- Vinegar (or salt water or lemon juice)
- Scissors
- 5mm LEDs
- Aluminum Foil
- Bowl
Most of these supplies can be purchased on Amazon
Instructions:
Step 1: Put a piece of aluminum foil down in your work space.
Step 2: Next cut some circles out of the cardboard and soak them in vinegar. If you don’t have vinegar you can also use salt water or lemon juice.
Step 3: Take your cardboard circles out of the vinegar and pat them dry.
Step 4: Now it’s time to begin stacking the battery. Place a zinc washer on the aluminum foil then on top of the washer place a cardboard circle (that was soaked in vinegar)
Step 5: On top of the cardboard circle place a penny. Then repeat the pattern again on top starting with a zinc washer. Do this until you have repeated the pattern 5 times. (Zinc washer, cardboard, penny, repeat)
Step 6: Great, you finished building your battery, now it’s time to test it. Take your 5mm LED and put one end touching the aluminum foil and the other end touching the top part of the battery. Remember that the zinc is releasing electrons so itis negative. The negative side of the LED should be touching the aluminum.
If you did this correctly the LED should light up! You can try doing this with different numbers of LEDs or different numbers of pennies and zinc washers.
Check out the video on our Youtube Channel
