• Volunteer
  • Teach
  • Programs
    • Chats with Change Makers
    • Engineers Week
    • IMAX Films
    • Introduce a Girl to Engineering
    • World Engineering Day
    • Future City
  • Engineering Activities
  • Engineering Careers
  • Support Us
  • Store
  • Search
  • Join
Donate
Join
  • Volunteer
  • Teach
  • Programs
    • Chats with Change Makers
    • Engineers Week
    • IMAX Films
    • Introduce a Girl to Engineering
    • World Engineering Day
    • Future City
  • Engineering Activities
  • Engineering Careers
  • Support Us
  • Store
  • Search
  • Join
  1. View More Activities

Make a Lightbulb

Students experience a little bit of what Thomas Edison did as they try to get the filament in the lightbulbs they construct to glow as long as possible.

Time
  • 45 minutes or Less
Careers
  • Electrical
Grade
  • 6-8
Topic
  • Electricity
Leader Notes
Materials

Per Team:

  • Small jar
  • Cork stopper for a jar lid
  • 1″ nail
  • Hammer or blunt object for drilling nail through cork
  • 3 feet of shielded copper wire
  • Wire strippers
  • 1 six-volt lantern battery
  • Thin iron wire (best source is unraveled picture- hanging wire)
  • Paper or small notebook
  • Pencil
  • Wire snippers
  • Electrical tape
  • Ruler or measuring tape
  • Stopwatch

Per Student:

  • Safety glasses
  • Gloves
Instructions

Students construct a lightbulb and see how long they can get the filament to glow.

Safety note: This activity requires adult supervision. Filaments will get very hot before they burn out. Make sure that students wear gloves and safety glasses and handle filaments with care—and that they don’t touch filaments that are hot. Caution students to never play with wall sockets or household electric current.

ACTIVITY:

  1. See if students know who invented the lightbulb. Explain that Thomas Edison worked with a team of inventors to create the first practical working lightbulb. Ask students to take a guess at how many tries it took before they succeeded. Reveal that they tried hundreds of times, with a wide range of materials—from cardboard to palm leaves to bamboo and hemp. Today is their chance to find out what it might have been like to finally achieve some success at getting a lightbulb to work.
  2. Divide students into small teams. Teams need to designate one member as the timekeeper.
  3. Distribute materials to each team. Emphasize safety practices students must follow before providing the following instructions:
    • Cut the copper wire into 18″ lengths. Strip an inch of plastic coating off each end of each strand of wire.
    • Use the nail to drill two holes from the top of the cork through to the bottom of the cork.
    • Push the stripped ends of each piece of wire through one of the holes so that you can see about 2″ of each wire on the other side of the cork.
    • Wrap the ends of the copper wires halfway around the pencil to make hooks. You need the hooks so that you can twist strands of iron wire around them to make a filament.
    • If you are using picture-hanging wire, unwind it so that you can use individual fine strands of iron wire.
    • Twist two strands of the thin iron wire together. Stretch the strands across the gap between the two copper hooks to form the filament. Twist each end of the strand around a copper hook to hold it in place.
    • Put the cork stopper with the filament inside the jar.
  4. The timekeeper needs to be ready to start keeping time now. Instruct students to carefully hook up both ends of the copper wire to the battery. Use a small piece of electrical tape to attach one end of the wire to the positive end of the battery and the other to the negative end of the battery. The lightbulb will light up! Tell the timekeeper to start the stopwatch and time how long it glows before it burns out. Take notes of how long it glowed.
  5. After the filament has stopped glowing, tell students to unhook the ends of the wire from the battery.
  6. Students should wait 2 minutes before pulling the cork out of the jar. Wearing safety gloves, they should remove the filament, let it cool, and throw it away.
  7. Ask the teams: Think about how to make a filament that might glow for a longer time. Test it, using a stopwatch, and record each time. Try this a few times with variations on the filament.
Guiding Questions
  • Would twisting more pieces of iron wire together make a longer- lasting filament?
  • What would happen if you made the filament have little coils in it before you attached it to the copper wire hooks?
  • What do you think would happen if you used a different voltage of battery?
  • Do you think a bigger jar would make any difference in how long the filament lasts?
STEM Connections
  • Electrical current is the flow of electrons, usually from the positive terminal of the battery to the negative terminal. In an electric lightbulb, the electrons flow from the battery, through the filament and back to the battery. When the electrons pass through the filament, they produce heat and make the filament glow.
  • Edison’s first filament was made from carbon, but he soon replaced it with a bamboo filament that stayed lit for up to 1,200 hours. After trying different metals, most light bulb companies settled on tungsten. Scientists also discovered that coiled filaments last longer than straight ones.
  • Engineers and scientists continue to develop new types of lightbulbs. Fluorescent lightbulbs produce light by passing an electrical current through a long glass tube filled with gas. Light Emitting Diodes (LED) bulbs use a semiconductor, a solid substance that conducts electricity more slowly than metal, to turn electricity into light. LEDs are the most efficient bulbs today. They can last up to 50,000 hours.

Enjoy this activity?

Join our community and receive activities, early access to programs, and other special news, and/or leave feedback on this activity below!

Thank you! Your submission is processing.

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Submitting...

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Print
Downloads
Share this activity with your network!
Enjoy this activity? Please let your friends know!
Share Activity
Challenge created by: Lemelson Foundation More Activities from Lemelson Foundation
Downloads
  • Make a Lightbulb activity
Related Activities
View All
Physics Lesson: LED Holiday Card
Physics Lesson: LED Holiday Card
  • Multiday
  • 9-12
View Activity
Grade 4 Lesson: Wind-powered LED
Grade 4 Lesson: Wind-powered LED
  • Multiday
  • 3-5
View Activity
Grade 1 Lesson: Daylight in a Bottle
Grade 1 Lesson: Daylight in a Bottle
  • Multiday
  • K-2
View Activity
The Power of Graphene
The Power of Graphene
TryEngineering
  • 1 to 2 Hours
  • 6-12
View Activity
Squishy Circuits
Squishy Circuits
Squishy Circuits
  • 45 minutes or Less
  • K-12
View Activity
Laser Challenge
Laser Challenge
Cincinnati Museum Center
  • 45 minutes or Less
  • 6-12
View Activity
Hidden Alarm
Hidden Alarm
Design Squad Nation
  • 1 to 2 Hours
  • 3-8
View Activity
Dance Pad Mania
Dance Pad Mania
Design Squad Nation
  • 1 to 2 Hours
  • 6-12
View Activity
Oranges and Batteries
Oranges and Batteries
IEEE History Center
  • 1 to 2 Hours
  • 3-8
View Activity
DiscoverE helps create activities like this around Electricity for children in Middle School to help prepare them for STEM careers in fields like Electrical.

Find our resources helpful?
Please consider donating.

Make a donation

Want to find out how you can volunteer?

Get Involved

DiscoverE works to provide every student with a STEM experience and the resources, programs, and connections to improve the understanding of engineering through a united voice and a global distribution network.

The development of this site was made possible by a grant from the United Engineering Foundation (UEF).

About Us

  • Our Story
  • Our Board & Staff
  • Our Impact
  • Donate

Get Involved

  • Messages Matter
  • Teach
  • Volunteer
  • Our Programs
  • Store

Resources

  • Learn about Engineering Careers
  • Engineering Activities
  • Our Blog
  • Logos & Graphics
  • Outreach Grants

Connect

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Contact Us
Website designed and developed by RedSwan5.

© 2025 DiscoverE. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions

Join Our Community

Stay up-to-date with all the programs and resources that Discover E has to offer!

Login or Create Account

All of the content on this site is free!

Registering for the site helps us tailor future activities, webinars, and events so that we can serve you better.

Thank you for your interest and for helping us in our mission to transform lives as we put the E in STEM!

Login Form

Log in or sign up

Forgot your password?

Don’t have an account? Sign up!

We use cookies that are necessary to make our site work. We may also use additional cookies to analyze, improve, and personalize our content and your digital experience. For more information, see our Cookie Policy.OKCookie Policy