National Geographic
Battery Lesson Plan
Not really just a lesson plan, but a series of activities, reading handouts, and teacher's guidelines for conducting a class mini unit on the battery. Physical scientists focus on the history of the cell battery, experiment with...
Exploratorium
Penny Battery
Use pennies to light an LED. Class members follow the provided directions to build a multi-celled battery powered by pennies. Using stacks of pennies of varying heights, pupils control the voltage of the battery to light different colors...
CK-12 Foundation
Battery
Don't take for granted the technology behind power packs. Build an understanding of the chemical mechanics of a battery pack that charges your phone. The simulation allows young scientists to manipulate the type of elements in a pack and...
Carnegie Mellon University
Battery Workshop
Introduce your class to the workings and parts of a battery-operated circuit. Pairs of pupils use lemons to make batteries and measure voltage and current with a multimeter. An accompanying worksheet is used for recording values and...
Cornell University
Making a Battery
Don't be shocked when your class has a blast making their own batteries! Science scholars examine a dry cell battery, then design and construct a wet cell battery. The activity guides them through the parts of a battery, the variables...
Curated OER
Biomass: Potato Power
Students put together a potato battery that powers a digital clock. In this potato battery lesson plan, students learn the connection between energy from biomass and how we can apply it.
Curated OER
Power to the Pedal!
In this pedal power instructional activity, students solve a math puzzle in order to determine how much power could be generated by pedaling a bicycle. They try to figure out how much power would be needed to run a child's laptop, and...
Curated OER
Battery Power
Sixth graders examine how much energy they use in the form of battery power. They examine the cost of using regular vs. rechargeable batteries and examine the effect on the environment of the two types of batteries. They discover that...
Curated OER
Solar Kit Lesson #6: Solar-Powered Battery Charger
In a previous activity, learners build an ammeter. That ammeter, or a pre-made one, is required in order to carry out this activity. The objective is for lab groups to design a way to connect solar cells that can recharge a battery....
PBS
Real-World Ratio and Rate Reasoning: How to Power the Skate Park
Bring on the lights! Using an interactive, characters try to figure out how to light a skate park by examining area and ratios to determine the number of solar panels needed to power them. Pupils design a house with a roof to hold solar...
Curated OER
Battery fun
Conduct an experiment with batteries to make a simple circuit. Fifth graders read the provided information, consider the two circuits, and determine which one is complete. An electrically charged experiment suggestion is included. Tip:...
Discovery Education
Wind Power
How do engineers turn something that is readily available, like wind, into energy? Scholars create a prototype of a wind turbine and attach it to a motor. They test out their prototypes and decide on their effectiveness. They also...
Curated OER
Describing the Motion of a Battery Powered Cars
Middle schoolers explore distance a toy car travels by changing the amount of batteries used to power the toy car. In this force and motion lesson, students calculate the average speed of a car while investigating the power from various...
Teach Engineering
Powering a Device Using Food
Eat up a resource on using food to power electrical devices. Future engineers first experiment with different fruits and vegetables to determine the amount of electrical energy they provide. Based on the data, they design and create an...
Curated OER
Rechargeable Ni-Cd Batteries
In this rechargeable batteries worksheet, students read about how nickel-cadmium batteries work and answer four critical thinking questions about rechargeable batteries, how they work and their benefits.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Flashlights and Batteries
Students examine how batteries work, how they provide power to the simple circuit within the battery, and how the switch controls the flow of electrons; students then disassemble a flashlight, and draw a schematic of a flashlight's...
Curated OER
Electric Power
In this electric power activity, students read about the relationship between voltage, power and current and use the equation for power to find the voltage, power or current in nineteen problems.
Curated OER
Power and Auroras
In this power and auroras learning exercise, students read about the relationship between power, work and energy and how the power of auroras are measured by the light they produce. Students use a data chart of the Great Aurora of 2003...
Curated OER
Power Play
Once your physical science stars have a grasp of the different forms of energy, use this resource to get them putting the energy to work. Small groups choose from seven different project options and work together to build an energy...
Science Matters
Solar Energy
The solar energy industry in the United States added more jobs in 2015 than the oil and gas extraction and pipeline industries combined. With the field growing so rapidly, it's essential to understand what solar energy is and how it...
Curated OER
Batteries
In this battery worksheet, students answer 14 questions about primary cell batteries, secondary cell batteries, and how batteries are charged. They calculate the rates of discharge for given batteries.
Curated OER
Regulated Power Sources
In this electrical circuit worksheet, students design and build a circuit board to grasp the understanding of power sources and answering a series of 28 open-ended questions with schematics. This worksheet is printable and the answers...
Curated OER
Power Conversion Circuits
In this electrical activity, students draw a schematic design and build a circuit board to grasp the understanding of power conversion circuits before answering a series of 30 open-ended questions including analyzing schematics. This...
Curated OER
Solar Kit Lesson #1 - Solar Cell Inquiry
Give youngsters the components of a solar-powered electric circuit and turn them loose to figure out how to connect them in order for a light to shine or motor to turn. They compare energy output of a solar panel to that of a battery. On...