Homeschool Battery Experiment

Make your own Fireflies!

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When we were getting ready for our day without electricity, I came across a great idea for making fireflies from GeekDad. I didn't get my act together enough to try it at the time - but we did have a play with it recently.

The idea is to let your children loose with some batteries and LEDs.

Without me having to provide too much guidance - we managed to create some great battery experiments! I thought this was a great (low-key) way to do some homeschool science.

This project is really simple and would work very well with younger children (as long as they are past the age of putting things in their mouths!).

What you need:

• Some Batteries

We used a pack of 3v CR2032 Lithium batteries. In the US you can buy packs of 25 like this one, or get 10 here from the UK.

• Some 5mm LED bulbs

I got a mix of colours - about 20 of them was enough for playing with. You can get them from a hardware store (or order from Maplin in the UK.

Homeschool Science

The bulbs only work if they are placed on the battery the right way around (slip a wire from the bulb on each side of the battery - either hold it or tape it in place). It took the children some time to figure out that this is why they sometimes worked - and sometimes didn't!
Because we had lots of Led bulbs we then looked at;

Of course, then the children wanted an on-off switch!! Luckily clever Mom had already pulled some electronic componants together. Voila!!

This was a really fun way to have a play with light and electricity (without all those fiddly wires that normally make this kind of experiment fail!). It would be a great thing to introduce on a camping trip, or at a sleepover - or just for strewing.

More Science Activities

The Periodic Table - in a box.
Electricity for Kids.
Science with pinecones.
Build a Geodesic dome.