Enhancing energy literacy in children using zn/cu/potato

The major challenges that prevent the wide-scale adoption of Background. emerging personal clean energy production are unawareness and low self-confidence. We tested a hypothesis that a combination of a new technology and educational methods could lead to the increase in awareness of children to clean energy possibilities and to an increase in self-confidence in applying them. Here we report on a toolkit that combines low carbon, clean energy Methods. source, Zn/Cu/potato batteries, sufficient to power light-emitting diodes, with a non-formal education by experience program, based on case studies and hands-on experience with battery assembly for 6-11 years old children, led by trained 12-14 old youth leaders. The results show that the education experience increased the Results. awareness of the children to produce electricity at home from unconventional, yet available raw materials and their self-confidence in being able to do this (p=0.008). The developed toolkit supports environmental and energy Conclusions. literacy education through non-formal training, increasing awareness and self-confidence in children to actually apply this in their living environment to produce clean energy. Alexander Golberg ( ) Corresponding author: [email protected] : Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Writing – Original Draft Author roles: Polikovsky M Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing; : Conceptualization, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Sharon A Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing; : Conceptualization, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Golberg A Project Administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing No competing interests were disclosed. Competing interests: Polikovsky M, Sharon A and Golberg A. How to cite this article: Enhancing energy literacy in children using zn/cu/potato batteries 2018, :24 (doi: ) [version 1; referees: awaiting peer review] F1000Research 7 10.12688/f1000research.13228.1 © 2018 Polikovsky M . This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the , Copyright: et al Creative Commons Attribution Licence which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Data associated with the article are available under the terms of the (CC0 1.0 Public domain dedication). Creative Commons Zero "No rights reserved" data waiver The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work. Grant information: 08 Jan 2018, :24 (doi: ) First published: 7 10.12688/f1000research.13228.1 Referee Status: AWAITING PEER REVIEW 08 Jan 2018, :24 (doi: ) First published: 7 10.12688/f1000research.13228.1 08 Jan 2018, :24 (doi: ) Latest published: 7 10.12688/f1000research.13228.1 v1 Page 1 of 12 F1000Research 2018, 7:24 Last updated: 08 JAN 2018