Have you ever tried out a potato clock? Did you even know a potato could power a clock? How about a pumpkin? The kids clock kit we picked up suggested trying out different fruits and veggies, so we did! We knew the potatoes would work since it’s advertised as a potato clock, so we decided to build a pumpkin clock instead for a cool pumpkin STEM project. Pumpkin activities are the best!
PUMPKIN STEM PROJECT: MAKE A PUMPKIN CLOCK
POTATO POWERED CLOCK
There are lots of fun ways to explore STEM at home and in the classroom, and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist either. I’m not, but I still want to be able to enjoy exploring cool ideas and learn a little something too.
Since we don’t have copper, zinc, wires, and little clocks hanging around, I needed to get some supplies. This potato clock kit proved to be perfect {this is NOT sponsored!} and we can easily reuse the supplies.
Also check out how we powered a light bulb with a lemon battery!
Free Pumpkin STEM Guide and Challenge Cards
PUMPKIN CLOCK STEM PROJECT
SUPPLIES USED
- Green Science Potato Clock Kit
- 2 Small Pumpkins
You might also enjoy making a Lemon Battery for more fruit science and STEM!
How to Make a Pumpkin Powered Clock
The instructions in this Green Science Potato Clock Kit are very simple to follow! I did use a small knife to make slits for the copper and zinc strips. I imagine a potato is easier to push through, but I didn’t want to bend the strips as that is what started to happen. My son was able to help with the whole process and loved it! He initially was convinced that pumpkins would not work! But they did!
The potato clock kit suggests trying out different fruits and vegetables to see if they produce the energy needed to power up the clock.
I love that we can reuse the clock kit items for more tests, so it’s really worth it to keep these materials to reuse. It was really cool to see the pumpkin clock working. My enjoyed fiddling around with the little clock to set the time.
HOW DOES A PUMPKIN CLOCK WORK?
What’s the science behind this pumpkin clock? Well, you just made a battery out of your pumpkins! Talk about green science!
Very small particles inside the pumpkins help convert the chemical energy inside the strips of metal into electrical energy. An electrical current moves between the two strips. The pumpkin allows the current to flow. An electrical current is also flowing through the wires to power the clock.
There are many fun ways to use seasonal items, like pumpkins to fuel your STEM learning. What about a pumpkin volcano,or a pumpkin pulley!
Printable Halloween STEM Activities Pack
150+ Pages of Halloween-Themed Materials!
This Halloween project pack is suitable for home, school, and group use for kids in grades Kindergarten through elementary but is scaleable for many ages and abilities.
What’s Included:
- 25+ Halloween theme science and STEM activities with printable sheets, instructions, and helpful information all using easy-to-source materials perfect for limited-time needs. Includes a Halloween engineering pack with fun, problem-based challenges for kids to solve!
- The skeleton activity pack includes building a skeleton challenge and a coding challenge! Try a skeleton bone bridge-building STEM challenge!
- Halloween theme brick printable activities for hands-on learning with math that is perfect for early finishers or home fun and reinforces basic math concepts.
- Bonus fun pack includes games and activities to round out your Halloween theme, such as I Spy, bingo, matching, Would You Rather cards, scavenger hunt, word search, A-Z Halloween hunt, and a coloring page.
- The Halloween STEAM Pack includes artist-inspired projects by Warhol, Lichtenstein, and more!
What a fun idea to try the classic potato clock experiment with pumpkins!
This is perfect for October. I’m adding it to my collection of pumpkin STEM activities for us to try this month.