Video: Lemon Battery

This video segment is adapted from Zoom. The kids are creating a lemon battery with lemons, paper clips, copper wires, pennies, and a digital clock. They use their lemon battery to illustrate how the electrons flow through the circuit to power the clock and return to the lemons. They also experiment with various ways of interrupting the flow of electrons in the circuit. The video illustrates the principles of an electric circuit and the flow of electrons through the circuit. The materials required to recreate the lemon battery are inexpensive and easy to acquire in most schools or homes. There are also discussion questions and a background essay that can be accessed on the website for further information.

Standards & Objectives

Essential and guiding questions: 

Discussion Questions

  • How does the lemon battery work?
  • Do you think the digital clock would work if the coin and paper clip were the same kind of metal?
  • What factors could you change or vary to help you better understand what makes this digital clock work?
  • Do you think the electrical current flowing in this circuit is the same or different from the electrical current in a wall clock or a battery-powered clock? Explain.

Lesson Variations

Blooms taxonomy level: 
Applying

References

Contributors: