In this fun hands-on activity, students make a fruit battery using lemons. They use the battery and other simple materials to build a circuit that powers an LED light. Students then conduct research to discover how their fruit battery and circuit work.

Background Information: The source of energy in the lemon battery is not the lemon itself, but the copper and zinc that make up the electrodes. The zinc is oxidized, meaning they release electrons and become a positively charged zinc ion. Inside the lemon, hydrogen ions are reduced, meaning they accept the electrons and become hydrogen gas. The juices inside the lemon act as an electrolyte to carry electrons from the zinc electrode to the copper electrode, which then transmits the electrons through the wires of the circuit.