Part of Lesson Plan: **Introduction to Batteries (updated) By Eli Jaramillo

Activity Overview / Details

Materials needed:

• Automotive battery cutaway
• Working flashlight with d-cell batteries

Instructor:  (Hold up the auto battery cutaway):  "Here we have an automotive battery cutaway.  As you know, it provides electricity on demand.  It contains six different compartments or cells.  We'll talk about why they're important a little later.  Again, the battery doesn't 'produce' electricity until called on to do so.  So how do we get the battery to do its work?  Applying a load to the battery will prompt it to produce electricity.  This means operating the vehicle starter, lights, or accessories."

Instructor:  (Hold up the d-cell flashlight):  "Here's a flashlight.  Turn the switch ON, the bulb lights."

Instructor:    (Remove one of the batteries from the flashlight):  "Here's the battery from our flashlight.  It does the same thing as any battery:  Produces electricity when it's needed.  Switch ON, puts a load across the battery, which then produces the electricity needed to light the bulb."