Power and batteries lesson plan
Where the volts come from and how to keep them: Ohm's law on a real meter, cells in series and parallel, a regulator, a LiPo on a TP4056, a boost converter, a battery gauge, and a power bank you build yourself.
Objectives and materials
By the end, students can
- Ohm's law with a real meter, and stacking cells for volts or run time.
- A regulator that holds 5 V while the battery sags.
- Charging a LiPo safely, and boosting one cell to 12 V.
- A divider that lets A0 read a 12 V battery.
- A power bank that charges, boosts and shows its charge.
Materials for the whole unit
- Arduino Uno R3
- Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo x 4
- Bench power supply
- Buzzer
- Capacitor x 2
- Character LCD with I2C backpack
- Character LCD, 20x4, with I2C backpack
- Filament lamp x 2
- Full-size breadboard
- Half breadboard
- LED
- Li-ion charger, TP4056
- MT3608 boost converter module
- Multimeter x 2
- Resistor x 2
- Solar panel, 6 V 1 W
- Three-channel current monitor, INA3221
- Traffic light module
- USB power
- Voltage regulator
- Zener diode
Every part is already on the simulator’s bench, so there is nothing to buy or hand out. The counts are the most any one lesson uses, if you build it on real breadboards too.
Volts, amps and cells
Ohm's law with a real meter, and stacking cells for volts or run time.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Volts, amps and ohms with a real meterA bench supply, a 10 ohm resistor and a multimeter: what voltage, current and resistance are, Ohm's law in one line, and what a current limit does when the law asks for too much. | 25 min |
|
| Batteries in series and parallelTwo AA cells in series light a flashlight bulb, and two in parallel barely glow it: volts add in series, run time adds in parallel, and the rules for packing cells safely. | 25 min |
|
Materials
- Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo x 4
- Bench power supply
- Filament lamp x 2
- Full-size breadboard
- Multimeter x 2
- Resistor
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Batteries in series and parallel" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 5 of its 5 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Rules for packs".
Steady volts
A regulator that holds 5 V while the battery sags.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| A voltage regulator: 9 V in, 5 V outA 7805 turns a 9 V battery into a steady 5 V: its three legs and two capacitors, the dropout when the battery runs down, the heat it makes, and an AMS1117 that needs far less headroom. | 25 min |
|
Materials
- Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo
- Capacitor x 2
- Half breadboard
- LED
- Resistor
- Voltage regulator
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "A voltage regulator: 9 V in, 5 V out" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 5 of its 5 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "An LDO needs less".
Lithium cells
Charging a LiPo safely, and boosting one cell to 12 V.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Charging a LiPo with a TP4056A solar panel charges a LiPo through a TP4056 while an INA3221 and an LCD show every milliamp: why lithium needs a real charger, the 4.2 V limit, and what happens when the sun goes down. | 20 min |
|
| A boost converter: one cell to 12 VAn MT3608 boost module turns one 4 V lithium cell into 12 V for a lamp, and keeps it at 12 V as the cell runs down: how a boost converter trades amps for volts, and why it cannot step down. | 25 min |
|
Materials
- Arduino Uno R3
- Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo
- Character LCD, 20x4, with I2C backpack
- Filament lamp
- Li-ion charger, TP4056
- MT3608 boost converter module
- Solar panel, 6 V 1 W
- Three-channel current monitor, INA3221
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "A boost converter: one cell to 12 V" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 5 of its 5 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "It cannot step down".
How full is it?
A divider that lets A0 read a 12 V battery.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Reading a 12 V battery with a dividerTwo resistors scale a 12 V battery down so an Uno can read it on A0, and the sketch turns the reading back into volts and a charge level on an LCD and a traffic light. | 25 min |
|
Materials
- Arduino Uno R3
- Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo
- Buzzer
- Character LCD with I2C backpack
- Half breadboard
- Resistor x 2
- Traffic light module
- Zener diode
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Reading a 12 V battery with a divider" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 5 of its 5 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "The yellow light".
Boss project
A power bank that charges, boosts and shows its charge.
| Lesson | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
| Boss project: a power bank with a charge gaugePut it all together: a lithium cell charged from USB by a TP4056, boosted to 5 V by an MT3608 for a gadget, and an Uno showing the charge on an LCD and a traffic light. | 35 min |
|
Materials
- Arduino Uno R3
- Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo
- Character LCD with I2C backpack
- Filament lamp
- Half breadboard
- Li-ion charger, TP4056
- MT3608 boost converter module
- Traffic light module
- USB power
Check for understanding
Each student finishes "Boss project: a power bank with a charge gauge" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 7 of its 7 steps as they go.
Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Make it yours".
Teach this unit as a class
Start a class from this course and its 7 lessons are assigned in one go, in order. Students join with a six-character code or printed login cards, and each one’s work comes back to you.
The class tools are free for 30 days for one class of up to 20 students, with no card. The lessons themselves are free either way.