Newton Wheel
This activity, from Solar Spark, allows students to investigate light and the eye. A template is provided that students can colour to produce a Newton Wheel. White light is made up of lots of different colours and by spinning the colours on the disc, the eye combines the spinning colours and sees the disc as if it were white. The…
Plastic from Milk
Produced by Solar Spark, this activity allows students to make their own plastic from vinegar and milk. Milk contains casein in a form that is soluble in water. Making the milk acidic by adding vinegar makes the casein insoluble so the milk separates into a solid and a liquid known as curds and whey. Removing the water by filtering…
Tyndall Effect: Red Sky at Night
Produced by Solar Spark, this simple activity helps to answer the simple, yet complex question: Why is the sky blue and the sunset red? It's all to do with light scattering and the Tyndall Effect and can be easily demonstrated using a suspension of milk in water. Milk particles suspended in the water cause any light going…
Chlorophyll Fluorescence
From Solar Spark, this activity allows students to see how chlorophyll can be energised and how this causes it to fluoresce. Chlorophyll in plant leaves absorb red light and pass the energy on to other parts of the plant, hence leaves look green. But if there is nowhere for the energy to go, it gets released as light again. This…
Make Your Own Spectrometer
From Solar Spark, this simple activity allows students to make a spectrometer using a card box and a compact disc. The compact disc acts as a diffraction grating and splits the light being observed into its constituent wavelengths. This gives the colours of the rainbow when viewing white light. This type of analysis is applied in…
Hand Battery
Produced by Solar Spark, this activity shows how two metal plates and a person, can make a battery (cell). This helps to demonstrate how a solar photovoltaic cell works. A solar cell has two electrodes. These have to be connected up to make a circle which we call an electrical circuit. One side is connected using wires and the…
Energy and Appliances
Produced by Solar Spark, this short activity challenges students to put a variety of common appliances into the order of their electricity consumption. The activity can be used to stimulate consideration of issues such as: • energy generation and consumption • renewable energy • carbon dioxide • emissions…
Energy Connections Card Sorts
Produced by Solar Spark, this activity uses the format of a well-known TV game. Students are given collections of cards and they need to make the connections between them. Each set has a theme. The cards can be used to consider: • photovoltaic cells • solar energy • energy transfers • renewable energies.
Marble Runs and Solar Cells
Produced by Solar Spark, this activity allows students to model the energy changes happening inside a photovoltaic cell. In a solar cell, electrons move to make an electrical current. The electrons act like the marbles in a marble run. Marbles at the top of the run flow downhill through the run to the bottom where an input of…
Impact of Solar Power
Produced by Solar Spark, this activity allows students to consider the impacts of an available source of electricity on communities in developing nations. People who have unreliable or no access to electricity find their lives changed for the better if they do have access to reliable electricity. One of the ways of providing them…
Solar Cell Straws
Produced by Solar Spark, this is a simple practical activity that can be used to show how a solar photovoltaic cell works. During a 45-60 minute session, students make solar cells out of cheap and readily accessible materials. The mechanism behind the solar cell is similar to that used in a dye-sensitised solar cell (DSSC) but uses…
Solar Cells and Light Absorption
Produced by Solar Spark, this activity looks at the relationship between light and absorption in solar cells. Using a photovoltaic cell and different colour acetate sheets, it demonstrates the ability of solar cells to absorb at different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum and shows how the more it can absorb, the more power…
Magic Dye
This activity, produced by Solar Spark, uses "magic dye", a mixture of three different dye molecules. The mixture contains a yellow disperse dye, a direct blue dye and an acid red dye. When a fabric is put into the mixture, the dyes only attach to the types of fabrics they can bond well with. For example, the blue and yellow…
Make a Graetzel Solar Cell
Produced by Solar Spark, this activity allows students to make a photovoltaic cell in the school laboratory. A solar cell uses light from the sun to produce electricity. A type of solar cell, called a dye-sensitised solar cell (DSSC), can be made. This type of cell is cheaper than other solar cells, and is now produced commercially.…
Colour Mixing
From Solar Spark, this simple demonstration shows the effect of adding colours. Photos and pictures are often made up from just four colours black, cyan, magenta and yellow. Different amounts of each colour combine to get all the colours of the rainbow and make the complete picture. Solar cells are optimised so that they are…
Condensation Polymerisation
Produced by Solar Spark, this activity allows students to see a condensation polymerisation reaction in action as the polyamide polymer, Nylon, is produced. This is a condensation polymer made of two parent monomers, a di-amine and a di-acid chloride. The reaction can be used to illustrate: • polymerisation • chemical…
Electrochemical Writing
From Solar Spark, this practical activity explores the reactions at electrodes in an electrical circuit. A solar cell contains two electrodes. Different reactions happen at each electrode so that electrons can move around the circuit to give an electric current. In this experiment students use filter paper soaked in sodium chloride…
Anodising Titanium
By Solar Spark, this activity explores the relationship between light scattering and colour through anodising. This is the electrochemical process used to thicken the protective oxide layer found on several metals. Aluminium is the most common metal treated in this way, but others, including titanium can also be anodised. Thick…