Do you enjoy science fair experiments involving electricity? Would you like to do a project that studies how a variety of materials act in the presence of static electricity? In this project, I will explain the steps involved in making an electroscope that will be used to test the way that static electricity reacts in different materials.

As far as difficulty levels of science fair experiments go, this project is in the average range. It should only take a few days to do the experiment, and all the material should be readily available. If not, the cost is pretty low. You have to be careful and use precaution, because you are dealing with electricity

The building up of an electrical charge through objects is called Static Electricity. Sometimes, like in a lightning bolt, static electricity will suddenly discharge. At other times, it can makes things stick to one another, like when your socks cling to each other when you take them out of the clothes dryer. This static clinging is caused when two objects have opposite charges, negative and positive.

 You can actually make your own static electricity when you rub an object into another object. Friction is what results from the rubbing. This friction releases a charge that is negative, or electrons, which can create a static charge when they build up.

 Science fair experiments always require you to become acquainted with certain terms and concepts. Before you begin the project, you ought to know the following: electrons and frictions, neutrality and charged items as well as static electricity. 

By the way, getting a free copy of Easy Steps to Award-Winning Science Fair Projects will help you through your own project.

What you will need for this experiment:

•    balloon

•    foam plate

•    foam cup

•    drinking straw

•    clay

•    aluminum pan for pie crust

•    thread

•    aluminum foil

•    masking tape

•    wooden ruler

•    several various materials to experiment on (silk, nylon, wool, cotton, saran wrap, plastic, tissue paper, just about anything!) 

1.    The first step in this experiment is making an electroscope in order to test if static electricity is present in various materials. This is what makes this one of the cooler science fair experiments. You get to make your own electroscope!

2.    Make 2 holes in a Styrofoam cup that are opposite of one another somewhere near the cup’s bottom.

3.    Poke a plastic straw through each of the holes  that are in your Styrofoam cup. Push it so it is nearly equal to one side of the cup, yet sticking out as far as it possibly can out the other side.

4.    On the rim of your cup, you will need to stick four little clay balls that are each about a half of an inch in their diameter.

5.    Flip the cup over. Using the little clay balls, stick your cup to the inside bottom of your pie plate. You want the cup to be right near the edge of the pan so that your straw hangs over the edge of it.

6.    Cut an eight-inch piece of string. Tie several knots into one of the ends.

7.    Using your aluminum foil, you need to cut out a square that is one inch on all sides. Crunch it up into a ball around the several knots that you tied in the end of your thread.  Your ball ought to be about the same size as a marble.

8.    Create a dangling thread with the tin foil ball on the end by taping the other end of the string to the straw.  The tin foil ball should fall right near the edge of your pie plate.

9.    To prevent movement of your electroscope, you will want to tape the straw to the Styrofoam cup.

10.    Next you will test if your electroscope works. You will do this by creating some static charge. A simple way to do this is to rub a plate made from Styrofoam and a balloon together. This “charges” the plate, meaning that you caused a building up of the electrons on one of the items. Even when the plate gets charged like this, the electrons don’t move because the Styrofoam is not a conductor.

11.    Now you want to place your electroscope on the top of your Styrofoam plate. Be sure you grip it by the Styrofoam cup and not by the aluminum pie pan. If you grab it wrong, it won’t work. This is because electrons move very easily through metal, so if you put the pan down onto the Styrofoam charged plate, electrons will travel into your pan. The negative charges that are added onto the pan will repel the negative charges that are on the foil ball.  This will make it move away from your pie pan.

12.    Using a ruler, carefully measure the space between the pie pan and the foil ball. The more of a charge there is present, the bigger the distance. Don’t touch the foil ball or the plate with your ruler when measuring so your results are accurate.

13.    Now that you’ve tested your electroscope, you are going to use it to test what static electricity is present in a variety of materials. In between each test, you will have to discharge the electroscope.  Do this by touching your pie pan with a finger.

14.    You can test charging a variety of objects with static electricity and trying them. Good objects to try include a plastic comb, plastic wrap, a few types of fabrics, or aluminum foil.

15.    Test each of the new materials with your electroscope. Just as you did before, you will need to measure carefully the distance from the pie plate to the aluminum foil ball. Write down your data and compare the results. Figure out which objects will hold an electric charge and which ones will not? 

 Great science fair experiments always have variations. Something you can do for a variation on the experiment is to test whether your electroscope detects objects that are charged negatively and positively charged? How do you note the difference between them? The goal is to try and find a way to arrange the charged materials into negative or positive.