Exploring Eco-Friendly Battery Design

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Intended Grade Level(s):
4-5
Energy Content:
Batteries & Storage,
Circuitry,
Electrical Energy,
Electricity Generation,
Electrons,
Energy Fundamentals,
Hydrogen,
Materials Science,
Potential & Kinetic Energy,
Solar Photovoltaic,
Wind Energy
Learning Goal(s):

1.Students will explore methods to produce energy from everyday items such as potatoes, lemons, pennies, and cola.

2.Students will explore battery design and transfer of energy through hands on experiments with household items.

3.Students will measure voltage and experiment methods to increase voltage. 

4.Students will extend lessons to test out a variety of other materials such as varieties of fruits, vegetables, and sodas to compare different voltage produced. 

5.Students will collect and record data from all their experiments to compare the different voltage produced. 

6.Students will display data in charts or graphs to analyze the outcomes of their experiments. 

Unit:
Understanding E-Waste Through Battery Design
Lesson Number:
2
Pedagogy & Practice:
21st Century Skills Development,
Engineering Design,
Group Work/Collaboration,
Hands-on Materials,
Phenomena-Driven Instruction,
Project-Based Learning
NGSS Science and Engineering Practices:
2: Developing and Using Models,
3: Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
Relevant NGSS PE:
4-PS3-2,
4-PS3-4,
4-ESS3-1,
5-ESS3-1,
3-5-ETS1-1,
3-5-ETS1-2,
3-5-ETS1-3
Other Subjects Covered:
Math: Graphing & Representation,
Math: Measurement
Estimated Activity Length:
2 hours 40 min
Relevant Common Core Standard(s):
4.RI.3,
4.W.2,
4.W.7,
4.W.8,
4.W.9
Files Associated with this Activity:
Microsoft Office document icon Lesson 2 Understanding E-Waste Through Battery Design.doc
PDF icon L2. Lemon_Battery_Lab.pdf
PDF icon L2. Potato Battery.pdf
Description:

In this lesson students will experiment with everyday household items to make batteries.   Students will use lemons, potatoes, pennies, and cola to make batteries, and compare the amount of voltage produced.  These lessons can be expanded to test a variety of fruits as electrolytes with the electrodes being zinc and copper.