Group 3

Cassava starch as an effective component for Ideal Biodegradable Plastic

Inventions have evolved and continue to evolve such that after several years of study,
research and experimentation reach great developments. With continuing efforts to
investigate the constituents of Philippine plants, we have pursued investigation of starch
of the cassava plant (Manihot esculenta). Cassava tubers were gathered, ground and
squeezed to extract starch. Starch obtained was weighed and divided into three equal
parts; 80 grams in T1, T2 and T3.
Treatments also consisted of 60 ml plastic resin glue and resin with 50 grams of flour
catalyst for T1, 100 grams for T2 and 150 grams in T3. The components in every
treatment were mixed, stirred and then poured in silk screen with oil and then sun-dried.
Test for capacity to carry weight indicated T3 as the best. For its ability to hold water, all
products passed but for biodegradability, T1 gave the best results. The tensile and
bending properties had been tested using the Universal Testing Machine and Analysis
showed that T3 had the greatest tensile strength while T2 had the greatest bending
property. Using ANOVA single Factor, results showed that there was significant difference
among the three treatments in bending and tensile strength. However, for
biodegradability test there was no significant difference. The final phase of the study
determined the effectiveness of cassava starch as component of biodegradable plastic.
Results confirmed that cassava starch is ideal as tests proved its worth.
 Make a Battery from Potato
Introduction:
Batteries generate electricity through a chemical reaction between two different
electrodes and one electrolyte. Use of Copper and Zinc electrodes and Sulfuric acid as
electrolyte is a proven method for this process. We are wondering if we can use any
other liquid as electrolyte? This gave us the idea of using a potato as electrolyte. After all
a fresh potato has a lot of juice that may serve our purpose as electrolyte.
Problem:
Can Potato be used to generate electricity?
Hypothesis:
Potato juice contains many water soluble chemicals that may cause a chemical reaction
with one or both of our electrodes. So we may get some electricity from that.

Material:
For this experiment we use:
• A fresh potato
• Copper Electrode
• Zinc Electrode
• A Digital or Analog Multimeter to
measure Voltage or Current of
produced electricity.
• Alligator clips/ Leads

Procedure:
We insert copper and zinc electrodes in to the potato, close but not touching each other.
We use Clip leads to connect our electrodes to the Multimeter to measure voltage
between two electrodes or current passing through the multimeter. For this experiment
we removed the shell of a broken AA battery for our Zinc electrode. (Make sure to test
your multimeter by connecting it's Positive and Negative wires to each other that should
show no current and no voltage).

Record And Analyze A digital multimeter showed 1.2 volts between

Data: the electrodes, but the analog multimeter
showed a much smaller value. In other words
even though the voltage between electrodes is
1.2 Volts, the speed of production of electricity
is not high enough for an analog multimeter to
 show the exact voltage. (Analog multimeter
gets it's power from our potato to show the
voltage, but digital Multimeter gets it's power
from an internal battery and does not consume
any of the electricity produced by our potato,
that is why it shows a larger and more accurate
value).
We repeated this experiment with some other
fruits and all resulted almost the same. In all
cases the produced voltage is between 1 and
1.5 volts, and in all cases they do not produce
enough current to turn on a small light.
Another thing that we learned from this experiment is that creating
electricity and making a battery is easy, the main challenge is producing
a battery that can continue to produce larger amount of electricity for
larger amount of time.

Group 3
View Entire Science Fair Project List
Make Electricity from fruits
(Complete kit available at www.MiniScience.com)
Introduction:
This project is one of the most famous electricity projects that can be
performed successfully by most students in the age of 10 to 16. Since the
same method is used to get energy from many fruits and chemicals, this
project has many names. Following are some of the other names or titles
for this project:

1. Fruit power or fruit battery

2. Convert Chemical energy to electrical
energy
3. Potato battery or Lemon battery

Procedure:
Making electricity from chemicals is based on the same scientific
principles on which all modern batteries work. You insert copper and zinc
electrodes in an acidic liquid and produce some electricity from the
chemical reaction between your electrodes and electrolyte. The electricity
produced in this way can be displayed with a multi-meter that can show
millivolts. It may also be able to power up a 1.2 Volts light bulb. Making
electricity experiment can be used for many different science projects.
Following are some additional research that you can perform in relation to
making electricity from fruits and chemicals.

4. Replace electrodes of your

kit with other metals such as
1. Experiment to see which
coins, nails to see which other
fruits can produce electricity.
metals can be used as
electrodes.

2. Experiment to see which

5. Test to see if such
fruit juices can produce
electrodes can light up a bulb.
electricity

3. Experiment to see which 6. If you have access to a

other liquids such as multi meter, check to see how
detergents and drinks can many volts electricity is being
produce electricity. produced by fruits.

Material and equipment:

Material and equipment that you need for this project are:
1. Copper Electrode
2. Zinc Electrode
3. Multi-meter capable of measuring low voltages
4. Flashlight light bulb 1.2 Volts
5. Screw Base or socket for light bulb
6. Wires
7. Alligator clips
8. Board for mounting the base and the bulb (optional)
You can purchase the material locally from a hardware store or
buy it online. Make electricity science kit of MiniScience.com
contains all the above material