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Investigating electricity: Make a coin battery – Teacher notes

Investigating electricity: Make a coin

battery Teacher notes

Australian Curriculum relevance: Year 6

Science Understanding: Physical sciences

- Electrical circuits provide a means of transferring and transforming electricity (ACSSU097)

- Energy from a variety of sources can be used to generate electricity (ACSSU219)

Science Inquiry Skills

- With guidance, pose questions to clarify practical problems or inform a scientific investigation, and predict what the findings of an investigation might be (ACSIS232)

- With guidance, plan appropriate investigation methods to answer questions or solve problems (ACSIS103)

- Decide which variable should be changed and measured in fair tests and accurately observe, measure and record data, using digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS104)

- Use equipment and materials safely, identifying potential risks (ACSIS105)

- Construct and use a range of representations, including tables and graphs, to represent and describe observations, patterns or relationships in data using digital technologies as appropriate (ACSIS107)

- Compare data with predictions and use as evidence in developing explanations (ACSIS221)

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Investigating electricity: Make a coin battery – Teacher notes

Coin Battery Experiment: Teacher notes

Aim: To create a simple battery and electric circuit using coins

Materials:

- 3 copper coins

- 3 circle pieces of Wettex dishcloth (cut to the same size of

the coins)

- 3 zinc-coated washers (similar size to the coins)

- Digital multimeter and leads (you can buy these from Bunnings,

Jaycar Electronics, Dick Smith, etc for under $20)

- Two alligator clip wires (available from Jaycar Electronics)

- A 2V LED light (available from Jaycar Electronics)

- Small sheet of zinc-coated metal

- Dinner plate

- ½ cup of vinegar

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Investigating electricity: Make a coin battery – Teacher notes

Method

1. Clean the copper coins with a little of the vinegar to remove any corrosion. Discard the

vinegar used for cleaning.

2. Put the sheet of zinc-coated metal on a dinner plate. Place a zinc washer on the metal

sheet.

3. Dip a circle of Wettex in the vinegar (wet but not dripping) and place it on top of the zinc

washer. Put the copper coin on top of the wettex circle to create a “sandwich”

4. Touch the end of one lead from the multimeter to the copper coin. Touch the end of the

other lead from the multimeter to the zinc metal sheet. Ensure the multimeter is set to read

voltages up to 2V. Read and record the voltage on the multimeter.

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Investigating electricity: Make a coin battery – Teacher notes

5. Build another “sandwich” of zinc washer-wettex-coin on top of the existing layers (ensure

the layers are in the same order). Test the voltage of the double coin battery by again

touching the leads to the coin and the zinc plate. Read and record the voltage on the

multimeter.

5. Build a third “sandwich” of zinc washer-wettex-coin on top of the existing layers (ensure

the layers are in the same order). Test the voltage of the double coin battery by again

touching the leads to the coin and the zinc plate. Read and record the voltage on the

multimeter (Note: You may now need to change the setting on the multimeter to read

voltages up to 20V).

6. Test to see if your coin battery produces enough voltage to light up a LED light. Connect

the electrodes of the LED light to the alligator clips. Connect the end of one alligator clip to

the zinc metal sheet and touch the other to the top copper coin on the battery. If the light

doesn’t light up, try swapping the lead connections on the LED light.

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Investigating electricity: Make a coin battery – Teacher notes

Clean up:

- Dry the wettex circles on paper towels before storing them.

- Dry the coins, washers and metal sheet, ensure there is no left over vinegar on these

surfaces before storing them.