In our class last Thursday we divided into our assigned groups for our project.  Our objective as a team was to provide an interesting project for high school kids to learn about energy.  After a bit of deliberation in our group we decided upon a project that would surprise the classroom as well as teach them about how energy can be created in the strangest of ways.  We plan upon constructing a battery capable of generating small amounts of electricity using only a stack of pennies and nickles.  By stacking the copper and nickle and adding salt and vinegar soaked pieces of paper the stack can create electricity.  The movement of the electrolytes in the solution comes from the ions in the dissolved salt reacting with the two different metals causing a positive and negative charge.  When hooked up to an LED we hope the makeshift battery will be able to provide enough power to light it.  If all goes as planned we should have a battery made with unusual materials that will hopefully pique the interest of the students.  We have all of our materials gathered and plan upon testing this process on Thursday.

A diagram of a voltaic pile...hopefully our project will look something like this

Works cited:

sciencebuddies.org provided us with the idea for this project

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Energy_p015.shtml#summary

The Boston Museum of science sported many interesting exhibits, the one that seemed most relevant to the class was their great exhibits about alternative energy and wind power.  The Energized! exhibit displayed many hands on models, this made it easy to understand how these alternative energy sources worked.  There were solar panels, hydroelectric examples and also an entire exhibit devoted to wind power.  Nine wind turbines mounted on the top of the building generate power, this exhibit also displayed maps of all of the wind farms in MA.  This exhibit showed how important it is to correctly place a wind farm through an interactive game, it showed how much energy a wind turbine would produce depending upon where it was set up.  After that I visited the Sun Power exhibit, this educated people about the values of photovoltaics.  Live stats from a roof mounted solar panel show how much electricity is being generated at any given time.  The uses for this energy is explained by showing how solar energy can be used to power cars.  It is very important to educate children about the energy sources of tomorrow, these exhibits accomplished that in a fun and interactive way.

The Boston Museum of Science

Photovoltaic installations located on the roof of the MoS Boston