DIY Generator - Clever Hacks (Site Update)

The Back Story
A couple of years ago I got to sit in on a demonstration of a really cool inquiry based lab run by Mark Davids. In this lab each student group is given a

plastic shoe box containing: two light bulbs, a 1 Farad super capacitor, some alligator leads, and a Genecon Hand Crank Generator. They are then told to "play" and record their observations. They quickly find out that cranking the generator is much harder with a load (moving electrons = work) and the capacitor stores electricity in some way. After playing for a little there is a class discussion to share ideas. These ideas can lead to quick experiments to confirm or refute these ideas. This was one of those "AH HA" moments for me. It was a very influential experience and has changed the way I approach many of my labs.

I haven't been able to do this lab with my class. I only have one Genecon and I don't have a large enough budget to justify buying 10-15 of these at $50 each.

The Solution
While cleaning this summer I stumbled upon a flashlight with a hand crank that I'd bought my son for our last camping trip and out of the blue I had a

thought. Could this be used instead of a Genecon? How much do they cost? ($10 at Amazon) As it turns out I had a couple at school that a student had brought in for a project relating to generators, but in the end we didn't use them (he had gotten them for free).

I haven't used these in a classroom situation yet, so I don't know if they will be as robust as Genecons. But at $6/ea they are cheaper than the $7 Genecon replacement gears. The output seems similar. I haven't done extensive testing yet, but load voltage is about the same for the same load.

This hack is pretty straight forward, but I do have detailed instructions on the FLOSScience site if you need them.