You will need a ball point pen, wool sock, piece of Styrofoam, thumbtack and an aluminum pie pan. Begin by pushing the thumbtack through the center of your pie pan. Push the end of your pen into the thumbtack. If you need to, you can use an adhesive to secure the two pieces together. Next, rub the Styrofoam quickly with your wool sock. Now pick up the pie plate by the pen and place it directly on top of the Styrofoam. Do not touch the actual pie pan with your hand. Turn your lights out so the room is as dark as possible. Slowly bring your finger close to the pie plate. You will hear, feel and see a tiny spark between your hand and the plate. Record your findings and discuss how negatively charged electrons affect like and opposite charges and how they repel each other.
The focus of this experiment is to demonstrate how a potato can produce electricity. For this simple project, you will need a potato, zinc electrode, copper electrode, alligator clips and a digital or analog multimeter to measure voltage. You can find just about all these items at a science store. Begin by sticking both the zinc and copper electrodes into the potato. They can be close to each other as long as they do not touch. Now use the alligator clips to connect your electrodes to the multimeter. This will enable you to measure the voltage between both electrodes. Record your findings. Discuss how potato juice contains many water soluble chemicals that may cause a chemical reaction with electrodes.
For this experiment, you will need an aluminum can, a piece of wool, two inflated balloons, string and your hair. After inflating your balloons, tie strings to the ends and rub the balloons, one at a time, against the wool. Slowly move the balloons away from each other and determine if they are repelling or pulling towards each other. Now run both balloons against your hair or the child's hair. Slowly pull the balloon away from the hair and take notice if the hair stands up. Next, place the aluminum can on its side on a table. Rub the balloon against your hair again and hold the balloon about half an inch from the can. Take notice if the can rolls toward the balloon. Record all your findings and discuss how negatively charged particles are attracted to positively charged items.
You will need a piece of wool, piece of cotton, piece of flannel, piece of clear plastic wrap and a fluorescent lighting tube. Stand in a dark room, holding the tube carefully in one hand and one of the pieces of material in the other. Rub the material vigorously along the fluorescent tube, then repeat this process using all the different materials. Record the differences you find. Discuss how the fluorescent tube reacts when an electrical field is generated by static electricity. Discuss how the manipulation and motion of an electrical field excites charged electrons.