Lithium shuffle
Lizzie Driscoll, PhD student at the University of Birmingham, produced a fun, informative video explaining how rechargeable Li-ion batteries operate. She also rolled out the activity as a playground game for schools.
Through the development and successive commercialization of the Li-ion battery establishing the portable electronic industry over 20 years ago, the world’s infrastructure and social mobility has drastically changed. These batteries are found everywhere – from mobile phones to laptops, and, more recently, electric vehicles.
With a technology so widely available, it is important for the public and school children to understand how they work, and what research is being done to improve them. The most common demonstrations to introduce batteries are the potato-/lemon-electrolyte batteries. Although this is a great demo to introduce the concepts of electrochemistry and non-rechargeable batteries, it can’t be used to explain the rechargeable types.
This led us to create a visual aid to show how these batteries work so as to create a useful learning tool for battery education suitable for introductory (secondary) up to degree level.
We received a grant from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Outreach Fund, which was of enormous help. It enabled us to purchase props and T-shirts for filming, and sports bibs for using this activity as an educational playground game.
The day of filming was slightly chaotic but a great success. A wide range of people volunteered to take part – from senior battery chemists and materials scientists to PhD students and undergraduates.
The people playing the part of the lithium ions and the metal current collectors did a perfect job of moving and throwing the beach balls – representing the electrons – while I shouted "charge" and "discharge" out of shot!
I led a series of primary school workshops. One of the memorable ones involved some Year 4 students, a workshop that I ran with Dr Gavin Harper, Faraday Institution Research Fellow, in November.
We started the workshop off by asking students to think about what is in batteries and the responses were amazing. At the age of 8 or 9, I found it amazing how much they know about batteries, and how well they made connections to the everyday. I was further impressed with how they co-operated in the workshop activity to demonstrate charging and discharging rates. We used bean bags to represent lithium ions and each pair of students represented the two electrodes.
I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Peter Slater, who was incredibly supportive and was fundamental in the creative thinking stage. I’d also like to thank Professor Emma Kendrick for providing her input and time in the direction of the battery video direction.
I am so grateful for both of their groups for agreeing to take part in this activity, as well as other students and staff from the School of Chemistry and the School of Metallurgy & Materials, whose research isn’t directly related to batteries but who gave their time regardless. I think they made a marvellous human battery!
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