Electricity is an absorbing subject for science projects.
Electricity comes in static and current forms and science projects can create and demonstrate both. Students can make electricity with batteries, produce, balloons and wiring. Teach them to respect, appreciate and enjoy electricity. Both simple and involved projects will teach the wonders of electrical science and enhance understanding of its capabilities as well as its dangers.
Static Electricity
To demonstrate static electricity, draw a wool face on a balloon and blow it up. Hang it from the ceiling, placing it close to your head. Rub the eyes on the balloon with a piece of wool. As you move, the static electricity created will cause the face of the balloon to follow you around. This experiment makes a great introduction to static electricity.
Give each child a balloon. Instruct them to rub it on their heads or with a piece of wool. Tell the students to hold the balloon over a tray of packing peanuts. The static electricity will cause the peanuts to jump on to the balloon.
Comb your hair with a plastic comb. Start a small, steady stream of water in the sink. Hold the comb up to the flow and watch the static electricity change the flow of the water.
Fruit and Vegetables
Strip a two-inch section of copper wire and straighten out a steel paper clip. Check both pieces of metal for any sharp edges and sand them off. Gently squeeze a lemon, loosening up the lemon without breaking the skin. Poke both pieces of metal into a lemon about 1/8-of-an-inch apart. They should not be touching. Touch the two wires to your moist tongue. You should feel a small buzz on your tongue. The lemon has become a voltaic battery with the help of the electrodes (strips of metal) and the electrolyte (lemon juice) and creating a mild electronic response.
Strip the insulation from a 4-inch strip of copper wire. Push the wire into a potato. Push a steel nail into the potato as close to the wire as possible without touching it, . Use a voltage meter set to DC. Hook up the red and black clips to the wire and the nail. Watch the voltage meter for a reaction. The juice in the potato should cause the two metals to react together, much like the lemon experiment, and cause an electrical reaction.
Batteries
Form two connecting wires from two strips of aluminum foil. Tape one side to the negative end of the battery. Wrap the other aluminum foil wire to a 1.5 volt battery and tape it to the positive side of the battery. Touch the metal on the bulb with the foil taped to the negative end and watch the light come alive.
Tape two D batteries together, opposite ends matching. Wrap a large steel nail twenty times with insulated wire, leaving a five-inch section on each end. Strip two inches off each end of the wire. Place one stripped end to the negative end of the batteries and tape it in place. Tape the other wire to the positive end. Hold the nail over metal objects like straight pins or paper clips. Your new electromagnet will pick them right up. The batteries wear down quickly.
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