This video and activity challenge students to build their own batteries out of coins and compare the performance of batteries made with different materials.
The resource teaches students the importance of innovative battery technology to move away from fossil fuels and store energy from renewable power sources.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The simple activity of creating a battery can inspire students to solve problems through engineering and innovation.
This video has a positive and hopeful tone in finding solutions for climate change through renewable energy.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should be familiar with the difference between renewable energy sources and fossil fuels.
Students should be familiar with following directions in a step-by-step way to complete a design challenge.
Teachers should gather materials in advance including a variety of coins and LED lights.
Differentiation
Before the activity, teachers can lead students in a discussion about where energy comes from to power their favorite electronics.
If students do not have a background in physics, this activity can still be completed by speaking in general terms such as energy and power.
The resource includes an experiment building a coin-based battery made from natural resources and how it could be modified and upscaled to drive renewable power needs for a carbon-free world. This educational tool is simple, illustrative, and perfect for the classroom.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ETS1: Engineering Design
MS-ETS1-2 Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
3-5-ETS1-1 Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
PS3: Energy
4-PS3-2 Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
