Electricity & Circuits Activity for Kids

Coin Battery DIY

Duration: 30 min
Difficulty: Medium
Cost: $0 to $10

Learn how to make a battery out of coins to power an LED!

Visit The Full Lesson Download Instructions as PDF

Material List

1Teaspoon of salt
1Cup of water
1Red LED light
6Pennies
6Zinc washers
1Bowl of ¼ Cup of Vinegar
1Piece of Construction Paper
1Pen
1Pair of scissors

Instructions

1In a bowl, mix 1 teaspoon of salt into ¼ cup of vinegar.
2Soak the pennies in the salt/vinegar mixture for 5 minutes, then wipe them off.
3Trace pennies on construction paper and cut them out to make 6 paper discs.
4Soak the paper disks for 5 min in a mixture of 1 cup of water and 1 tablespoon of salt.
5To assemble the battery, stack the items in this order: coin, paper, washer, coin, paper, washer, and so on.
6Hold the LED light’s long wire to the penny side of the stack, and the short wire to the zinc side of the stack.
7Dim the light and your LED should light up!

How It Works

In this DIY you made a battery! Batteries convert chemical energy into electrical potential energy. That energy can be used to power a circuit, or in our case, an LED light. The more stacks there are, the higher the voltage of the battery and the brighter the light will be. The difference between a 1.5-volt battery and a 9-volt battery is how many stacks of chemicals they have inside.